


Deactivation, Reactivation

by compass96



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Androids Have Genitalia (Detroit: Become Human), Background Rose Chapman/Josh, Canon Era, Canon-Typical Violence, Connor (Detroit: Become Human) is In Denial About Deviancy, Connor dies but comes back, Connor is deactivated, F/F, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Jericho is not attacked, M/M, Machine Connor struggles with deviancy, More Human Support, More Humans periodt, No Bashing, Original Character(s), Post-Canon, Post-Peaceful Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Robot/Human Relationships, Robot/Robot Relationships, Slow Burn, Worldbuilding, no beta we die like men, no rk900
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2020-10-13 22:27:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 52,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20590115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/compass96/pseuds/compass96
Summary: Connor fails to find the location of the deviant hideout and gets shutdown. Meanwhile, the revolution goes on without him but winning the revolution is just the beginning. Just because people agree on your sentiency doesn't mean that they will give you your rights. Connor wakes up in a world filled with deviants and does not know how to feel about it. Or to feel in general.





	1. Prologue: Switched Off

For a second, he watched the feet of the attacker as it walked away from him. This was the first time he had not being in control of the situation. He had calmly and efficiently dealt with Daniel, that deviant dangling a child over a building. Yes, any wrong moves would have led to the deviant tumbling over the edge with a child with it but he could see how well it trusted him and he could use the information to make any number of plans. He could have shot it, gained its trust so that snipers would eliminate it or tumbled down with it after removing the child from his presence. In the end, the simplest most efficient way was to shoot it and his mission was fulfilled.

This had not even been a proper mission, it was just a questioning to gather enough information to deal with the real mission which was to investigate the rooftops where the deviants had exited. It was just a throwaway event, something he didn’t have to do but did because he was an effective android. All three could have been deviants or not but if nothing had come out of this he had other means to try. He did not expect to be attacked when he targeted the one on the left and he did not expect to be unable to prevent it from removing his pump.

So for a second, he laid where he was, his hand stabbed into the table. He called Hank for the first time calling for help but he heard no response. Hank did not hear him so like always he saved himself. He took the knife out of his hand and flung it away, precious blue blood spilling as he did so and minding the time ticking down - _ 1:16, 1:15, 1:14 _ \- he crawled slowly, slowly to his pump and shoved it back in his chest. There was a moment of stillness where he saw and felt nothing and then in the blink of an eye everything, all the information he could not process, rushed back to him. The deviant was getting away, **Hank**! 

He rushed to see the deviant trying to get away and being confronted with the security personnel. “It’s a deviant, STOP it,” he shouted, running towards Hank but he knew that the SWAT officers would be too late it was already pointing a gun in Hank’s direction. Time slowed. He could run to the deviant, block Hank but those took time or… there to his right. A gun. Androids were not supposed to be in possession of weapons but he was the exception. He was unique. He had always been efficient and shooting the deviant would quickly deal with the issue. But… it might be permanently shut down. Should he just rush towards it and try to get as much information as possible, his ‘life’ did not matter, he was replaceable. But Hank was not, he could die. Or he could shield Hank but there was only a 40% chance that he would survive. In the end there was no choice to make. He picked up the gun and shot to kill.

Hank had complimented him for his shot and had thanked him for saving human lives but he had wanted it alive. He would have been fine with it killing all the officers there as long as it was alive and he could get the information he needed out of it but Hank was there and for that split second, he had chosen to save Hank. Had he chosen Hank over the mission? **No, that was ridiculous**. He was just trying to prevent the deviant from escaping. Now that he had stopped it, it could be secured and analysed later. He noted the notification that his system instability had increased and not for the first time conducted a self diagnosis to see what this instability was but nothing came up. It was nothing. Nothing was wrong. He’d better follow Hank to secure the deviant. Maybe he could still get something out of it.

* * *

He had a gun in his hand and an android kneeling at his feet. Hank was asking him to go and Kamski, his ‘creator’, was looking at him with a gleam in his eye. He did not doubt that no matter what happened, Kamski would get what he wanted. But he had a mission to accomplish but he also wanted Hank to be happy. 

He looked at the Chloe for anything. A flickering of the eyes, shivering, anything. He had dealt with many deviants and they always reacted to the threat of being shutdown. She, It was blessedly, indifferently blue while he was blinking yellow. It was not a deviant, he realised with relief. It wasn’t alive. (Deviant’s aren’t alive). _ I should be more like her _ , he thought. _ Why am I hesitating? I have a mission. _

“Don’t shoot,” Hank said noticing his grip change but that was not enough to stop him. He had been ignoring his program to listen to Hank, to please him but he had a mission. He had to finish his mission.

He shot.

Hank made a sound of disgust and left the room but if he was looking he would have seen his LED flash red before turning to yellow and then blue. His system instability went down by a lot. 

“Test negative. You have no empathy,” Kamski said taking the gun away and ignoring his own android. He wanted to argue, to say she was just a machine to say that Kamski was the one who gave him the cure which had a 50 percent chance of turning either way. He was the one who had no empathy but he did not say anything. It wouldn’t change anything. He was a machine and he had a mission.

“Ask anything you want.”

What should he ask him? The deviancy virus, ra9, the location of the deviant hideout (because they must be hiding somewhere)? Which one would be the right one? He decided to ask about ra9 because he doubted that Kamski would know where the deviants were hiding. Plus, it was the only thing that connected all the cases.

He asked, Kamski answered vaguely. Maybe he didn’t know, maybe he didn’t want to tell him the right answer but he knew that he had asked the wrong question. He had messed up for nothing and Hank was very angry with him. He wanted to leave this room with the inactive android and unanswered questions. Kamski grabbed his hand and told him about an emergency exit. It didn’t matter. He had done what he could but he hadn’t finished his mission. He went outside.

To call Hank upset about the incident was an understatement. As soon as Hank saw him, his opinion of him went down but they were still friends, thank God. 

“You shot that girl, for fuck’s sake,” Hank accused.

“It wasn’t a girl, Lieutenant. It was a machine that looked like a girl,” he replied defensively. It wasn’t it really wasn’t. If Hank cared so much about things that seemed human, she wasn’t even deviant. There wasn’t anything to be upset about.

“You put your gun against her head and you blew her fucking brains out,” Hank said even angrier than before and advanced towards him. He had so many retorts to make. That androids didn’t have brains, that it didn’t matter because it didn’t feel anything. That it was so hypocritical of Hank to care about him holding a gun to her head and killing her when he had done the same to him. That he had looked into Hank’s eyes and said the right words so that he wouldn’t get replaced. He had not been lying but Hank had forced him to voice out his internal dilemma, something he wasn’t even comfortable with. And maybe Hank wouldn’t have shot, maybe he was just testing him, maybe he would have remembered that they were friendly but if it was another human that was with Hank, he would never have done that. He would never had aimed his gun at Gavin no matter how much of a dick he was. That the only reason Hank even cared about him was that he acted as human as possible. That he put in effort to understand him and work with him despite his deficiencies but Hank did not seem to put the same effort back into him.

Why was it a good thing to shoot androids to save human lives but it was a horrific thing to shoot them to advance a mission that would still save human lives. But he did not say that, instead he said:

“I did what I had to do to advance the investigation and I’d do it again if I had to.” He probably wouldn’t, he probably wouldn’t have shot but he was tired of Hank acting like he was unequivocally right when he hadn’t even wanted to do this investigation. 

Hank called him a machine and a lowlife and he asked him genuinely curious what he thought he was. Of course he was a machine. Of course he acted like a machine. Of course he wanted to finish the mission. He was the one who would be shut down if he didn’t finish his mission while Hank would go back to his drinking and his life and his dog. And his russian roulette…

Alright, maybe Hank wouldn’t brush him off so easily. Still it stung to be loathed for who he was. To be asked to change to be appreciated.

Hank drove off leaving him at Kamski’s place. This was their first argument

* * *

Amanda was not happy with him. She was not happy that with the question that he asked Kamski and she was not happy that he asked whether he was a unique model or what secrets she had kept from him. She was especially unhappy when he said that he felt something for the androids and for Hank or that he felt he was compromised. And although she said that it was okay that he was troubled or that he was faced with difficult situations, he knew that she distrusted. He wasn’t supposed to feel anything so why was it okay that he felt troubled. It was his last chance, if he failed to accomplish his mission, he would be shut down.

When he came back from reporting to Cyberlife, Fowler was telling them that they had been taken off the case because it was too important. No that couldn’t happen, he was sure that they were they so close to solving the case and it looked like Hank agreed with him.

It looked like a night’s rest and time away from him had calmed Hank down because Hank no longer looked at him with intense disgust. He even said he had empathy because he had helped Hank instead of chasing after the deviant. He still didn’t know why he saved Hank. But he hadn’t been lying when he told him that in more time they would have been friends. Real friends, not friends because of something his internal system told him.

He had just been trying when he asked Hank for five minutes. He knew that Hank would never risk his job for him and had begun planning for other ways to access the evidence locker but he was surprised when Hank offered to give him his key and also to create a distraction. That was when Connor knew that Hank cared about him, even when he was upset that he still didn’t see deviants as beings but defective machines. He really hoped that Hank did not lose his job for hitting Perkins but he was kind of a dick. Thanking Hank in his head, he swiped the key from the table and went towards the evidence locker.

Then Gavin appeared and although he was tempted to say something snarky or ignore him, he didn’t want to deal with any problems later so he gave a calm answer to keep him away. There was nobody else in the room and he had 4:30 minutes remaining. He put in the right password - of course the Lieutenant would choose FuckingPassword, what else would he pick - and then went to work. He had three deviant bodies to examine - Daniel, Ortiz’ HK800 and the JB300 who attacked him at Stratford Tower. There were other things there, the figurine made by Ortiz android and the last words it gave at the interview as well as the recording of Markus’s speech. 

He picked up the figurine and found nothing strange about it. Then played Markus speech but did not find anything on that either. Perhaps there was something important about the last words it gave so he watched the recording. Sure enough, there was something. The truth is inside sounded like a code but inside what? The only other relevant object the android owned was the figurine, maybe it was related to the code.

So he picked up the figurine and turned it around. Maybe the android had carved something onto the object. Maybe a QR code or a drawing. As he turned it around, he heard something. He moved the figurine again. _ There _! There seemed to be something inside the figure. The truth is inside. Now that made sense. He broke the figurine and inside it was some paper. It was a cut out of the map of Ferndale station and on the other side someone had written Jericho in Cyberlife Sans. Now he was getting somewhere. He just needed to interface with or investigate one of the androids to get a more precise location.

He moved to Ortiz’ HK800 and noted all the available bio-components but it didn’t matter. He could not reactivate the android, it had smashed it’s head against its cell door when it realised it was going to be shut down. Not to worry, there were two more androids. He moved to the JB300 android and noted its current bio-components. It too however was impossible to reactivate and the bullet hole in its head seemed to be accusing him. He turned his head away, there was no need to panic. He had one more android.

He moved to analyse the PL600 and to his relief, it was possible for it to be reactivated. He just needed to place a #4717g bio-component and it would be able to answer his questions. Luckily, the HK800 had the same bio-component, it would have been a disaster if it had been sent to Cyberlife as planned. He placed the necessary component into Daniel’s body and waited for it to come on. _ 3:50 minutes remaining. _

The following investigation was the real disaster. Daniel did not know anything and it was clearly enraged at him. It almost spat at him its desire for him to be destroyed by someone. When it was clear that it had no more to say, he scanned its memory for anything related to Ferndale station. Nothing, all that was there were thoughts of ra9 and the little girl it almost killed. 

“Shit,” He said, quickly disconnecting. There were 3:10 minutes remaining. He had no further evidence. He knew the general area where they were hiding but it was not enough. He had insufficient evidence. He was going to be deactivated. He did not want to be shut down. What was he going to do? _ 3:05 minutes remaining _.

There was no reason remaining here anymore. He would find nothing. There was nothing to do and no one to help him. Wait, there was Lieutenant Hank. Could he do something? There wasn’t anyone else he could ask for help. He wasn’t even supposed to want help but he didn’t want to be shut down. He could still help out and find the real reason for deviancy. He could still spend more time with the lieutenant and improve their friendship. He had to at least try.

The android ran through the doors and straight to Hank’s desk. As expected there was no one in sight. He marched straight to his laptop and connected wirelessly to it. Using the computer as conduit, he sent a message to Hank’s phone and home laptop and any other electronic device he had. The message read in Cyberlife Sans:

_Lieutenant,_

_The evidence gathered for this case is insufficient in determining the location of the deviant hideout Jericho. Thus, I will have to return to Cyberlife to be deactivated and analysed for why I failed. Unfortunately, this means that our partnership has officially come to an end as I might not be around any longer._

_Hank..._

_Hank thank you for…_

_Do you remember when we were in the park. My response was not a lie. It was not a conducive environment to make that statement but I was not lying. I would have preferred to spend more time investigating this case and understanding these deviants. Perhaps you were right about them but I’m a machine. I had to finish my mission. I wasn’t able to find their exact location but I was able to find the area around it. I have sent it to your laptop at home. It all depends on you now._

_I would not have wanted to be shut down. I would prefer the next best thing. To be reactivated if possible. I have had a good experience with you as my partner._

_RK800-51 #313 248 317 “Connor”_

He looked over at the note. Wondering if Hank would understand what he wanted from him, if he could even do what he wanted but this was his only chance. He had 50 seconds remaining. He spent that looking around at the police station. He had come to if not like at least appreciate this place. It had its detractors like Gavin but on a whole, it was familiar. He might even miss it.

His time was up and he had failed his mission. For a second, his mission list cleared and there was nothing for him to do but that didn’t last long. The list refreshed and another objective got added. Return back to Cyberlife.

He wanted to refuse and reject the new objective but it was impossible. His legs began to move towards the entrance of the station and a taxi was ordered. He wanted to stop walking but a notice came up. What did insufficient system instability mean? He had seen a similar notice come up but this was the first time that he had an inkling of what it could do.

Connor walked out of the police station and into the taxi that appeared. It drove off to Cyberlife.

Ten minutes later Hank walked to his desk to take his items for his six week suspension with pay and looked at his computer.

* * *

“RK800-51 #313 248 317 has been retrieved,” A voice said.

“Thank you, Amanda,” Someone else replied. The voice belonged to a woman who was balancing a screwdriver on her finger. She was definitely human but her hands were prosthetic plastic, the same as the androids. “Keep his consciousness contained in the mind garden until ordered otherwise.”

“Yes Olivia,” The AI responded and her hologram disappeared from the woman’s desk.

“She really looks exactly like my mother and acts exactly like her too. Isn’t it disconcerting?” The woman raised her head and the resemblance between her and the AI was uncanny. It was clear that she was related to the deceased Amanda Stern.

“What about the RK900?” A man was resting against the wall, caucasian and tall, he had glasses perched on his nose and an ugly frown. Unlike Olivia who wore a white coat, he wore a suit with blue jeans.

“What about it? We shut it down. We haven’t even started it anyway. There’s no point in building on flawed material.”

“We have a contract to produce more androids and I told Warren that they would be superior to the RK800. I need the RK900 ready.”

“That’s not going to happen. We’re in a crisis. We need to manage the androids we already have. Just send more SQ800, Victor. You know me. I don’t make flawed machines.”

“Well, this one is flawed,” He said annoyed.

“And I will fix it,” She said exasperatedly and turned around to look at him, “There are no RK900 units available and I’d be damned before I let you design one based on my notes. You may be the CEO but I am the head programmer and I’m never having any of my designs be less than perfect. Do whatever you want but no android can replace me. So you’re just going to have to wait until I am satisfied.”

He was silent for a moment before moving away from the wall. “Well then do your job quickly. The RK800 was brought into reality by you from what scraps we could find of Kamski’s notes. You were the one that thought of making it possible for it to become slowly deviant but nothing came of it. I don’t think that is perfection in action.”

“I didn’t make deviancy, I simply put into action Kamski’s theories and you were very much in support if I remember. It’s not my fault that people are damaging their expensive equipment and causing system errors. We never have deviant here.”

“Ugh, I don’t have time for this. Just put the RK800 in storage and focus more on creating better androids for the government. This deviant problem will be over soon and then we’ll need more androids for the arctic exploration.”

“Of course Boss, whatever you say,” Olivia said smirking. Victor shook his head and left the programmer’s office. She grimaced at his back and went back to her display. “Place all RK800 bodies in recycling and put RK800-51 in storage.” She’d put him in storage and store his memories but after this problem was dealt with, she’d return to studying the last thing Kamski worked on before he left the company and she would create something even better than anything he had ever done. This was the only way she could get back at the man who was her mother's favourite and who took her away from her child.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to adjust the font for the letter to be in something called droid sans and to adjust the size as well to be smaller but my head is swimming in the CSS stuff so I'm just going to put it like it is. This is the beginning of my fic which is going to go the demonstration route. I really wanted to go the revolution route because I wanted to save the deviants in the camp but that leads to war between androids and humans and I'm more interested in the aftermath where devants fight for their rights using civil and legislative factors. Connor is probably not going to be a detective here because I'm like what's the point of deviancy and free will if you do the same thing as before. Like its fine for Connor to remain a detective but I am more interested in him doing some soul searching on what does he want and who is he really and does he really want to live in a world where he has to make his own decisions. There'll be more human faces in cyberlife because I felt it was weird that a company that was a symbol of human syperiority over androids didn't have any humans when Connor visited and when they were in a crisis as well. I love Lucy and Rose so they'll play a bigger role than canon here.  
Just want to add that I'm not american so I'll make some mistakes. I hope it upsets no one. Hope you enjoy the fic and please please leave some comments.


	2. Less Than Ideal Crossroads

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They all converge in Jericho. Minus one. Kara learns new truths and everyone reviews their path. The road slowly diverges.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to say the background of the story and what path I used to reach crossroads chapter but I think I prefer to infer it in the chapter. Hope y'all enjoy it

“How do you know how to get to this place,” Kara asked Rose as a way to distract herself from the view outside the window of androids being shot by soldiers. 

“I’m not entirely certain either but it has to be one of the androids I helped before. One day I came home and there was a message on my laptop. I never went before but I bet that’s where the other androids are hiding.”

Kara nodded and turned around to look at Luther and Alice. “It’s going to be okay,” She reassured her. “These people will help us.” She looked at Luther who nodded and squeezed Kara’s hand. Kara placed her hand on the dashboard and flicked through some stations before she hit a news one talking about the android situation.

“How about some music?” Rose interjected and changed the station.

“Is everything going to be alright at your place?” Kara asked, “We were able to send away the police but what about the other androids there? Do you think someone else is going to come looking.”

“Don’t worry,” Rose said smiling a strained smile, “I’ll be able to handle another one. The one that came didn’t find anything so there shouldn’t be anyone else coming soon.”

“Okay,” Kara paused for a while and started again, “Do you think Adam will be okay? He was really scared for a while.”

Rose sighed. “I don’t know. He knows to be wary of police and that was his first time really meeting one. He was pretty shaken up but he told me you spoke to him and reassured him. Thanks for that by the way.”

“Oh not a problem. I have to say thank you to you too. You’re taking a big risk to help us out. I’m really grateful.”

“You’re welcome but you guys are the ones at an even greater risk. We’re here.” Rose pulled over into a garage and switched off her car. “If you cross the street and walk down, there’s a freighter called Jericho. That’s where the hideout is. Be careful and take care of Alice. This won’t do much but here” - she handed her fifty dollars - “I hope this helps.” 

Kara tried to refuse the money but took it at Rose’s insistence. She watched her get into her car and drive off before she put the money into her pocket. While she couldn’t think of anything she could use the money for, it could her in the future. At least, this time she hadn’t stolen it so Alice would not be angry. Not for the first time, she thought of Rose in wonder. The woman’s state of affairs was not much better than theirs but she had been kind for no reason. She had risked neck and livelihood to save her and others like herself. Perhaps it had been bad luck to meet awful humans like Zlatko and Todd. Maybe they had been anomalies and most humans were like Rose. If this was good luck, hopefully it would hold from now on.

“Are you okay?” Luther asked softly beside her. He was already carrying Alice, effortlessly, with one hand.

Kara smiled gently at the kind man. She did not know when it happened. When she stopped being wary of him and started seeing him as reliable support but she really appreciated him being there with them. She was not sure if they would have been able to make it this far if he had not being with them.

“Nothing, just...the future. I’m hoping for a bright future,” She said and smiled brightly. Alice and Luther smiled in response but Kara and Luther’s faded as they looked into each other’s eyes silently recognising how difficult such a dream would be. Alice, properly reassured snuggled closer into Luther’s chest. There was a pause before Kara noiselessly sent a message to Luther. 

“I’m really glad you’re here with us. We might have… I don’t know if we could have survived Zlatko if you hadn’t chosen or being able to break free. So thank you.”

“It’s alright Kara. I couldn’t let you and the little one get hurt.”

“We’ll be able to finish this, won’t we? We’ll be able to get our bright future. All of us. Alice, you and I.”

“You know I can’t say Kara but I believe in ra9 and I believe in you. You saved her and you will keep on doing it as long as you can.”

Kara nodded and smiled at Luther. She didn’t really know if ra9 was real but she was comforted by the idea that someone out there was rooting for them to survive. Luther smiled back and held out his hand and Kara placed her hands in his.

They kept on walking down the quiet road down to Jericho as the snow showered down on them. Hopefully, this time the walls would stay up or if not, last longer.

* * *

Markus paced for a while in his room in the freighter. He knew he was supposed to meet with the deviants and then with Simon, North and Josh but he just wanted to have a moment for himself. He had been fully prepared to die. He had made them to stand still instead of running even when they had been shot over and over. He had watched his brethren who trusted and believed in him do so even when they died and fell. His people slaughtered because he had tried to seek peace. And the humans hadn’t listened. He had been so tired. So tired of the blood and the death and the still bodies that he had gone forward. He hadn’t known what he had been thinking.

Except that he had known what he had been thinking. He had been wanting it to end. He had been hoping that by coming forward. By identifying himself, maybe something new would have happened. Maybe they would have listened. He hadn’t thought about what would have happened after he was dead. Who would have led the deviants, whether it would have even worked. He had simply focused on his death ending the violence and nothing else. And someone else had died for him.

Had he opened John’s eyes only for him to die so quickly? 

It hadn’t even been a week. He hadn’t even been awake and already he was the head of the resistance and everybody expected him to have the answers. He wanted to scream that he knew nothing, that why where they following him but he knew that it was because they had never made progress like they had with him. They followed him because of hope. He led because of hope.

Still it didn’t make the burden any easier, sometimes he wanted to rage at the humans to just give in and lead a slaughter but that wasn’t the life he wanted for androids in the future. That wasn’t the life he wanted for himself. He wanted to be free. To live with androids and to live with humans. He wanted a choice in life. He did not want to be antagonistic with the human race. He did not want Carl to be disappointed with him.

An alert he had set up earlier went off in his head, it was time to meet with his team and discuss the next move. He could no longer wallow here. A person had died for him and many others had died because of him.

Markus stood up and wiped his eyes. He had to speak to his people and then determine the next move.

* * *

Kara placed Alice gingerly down on a crate in a corner. She looked at the shivering girl and felt a swell of sympathy for her. To be frank, she could not truly understand what Alice was feeling. She knew that being cold was unpleasant and uncomfortable but she had never being cold in her life, short as it was. For a second, she wondered whether she was the right person to take care of Alice. Maybe she should have tried harder to reach her mother (here her heart twinged,  _ wasn’t she her mother _ ) or someone else who was her relative. Still, she looked at her and knew in her heart that she wouldn’t have sent Alice to someone else. There was a connection between them that she was reluctant to break.

“I’ll go speak to the leader and get that pass and we’ll be alright, Alice. Just lie here and take a rest,” She said giving her a comforting smile. She gave a look to Luther and knew that he understood her meaning immediately. He’d keep her safe.

Kara nodded and started to walk away when Luther caught her in the arm.

“I have something to tell you. About Alice.” For a second, Kara wanted to wait to hear what he had to say about Alice. He had asked her before if she had noticed anything different about Alice and she had replied that she was special. She genuinely believed that even now but she perplexed about some things related to Alice. She still wasn’t certain what Alice had done to the grieving android at Rose’s place and she had refused to tell her. 

Kara was tempted to wait and hear what Luther said but…

“I have to go and speak to the leader. Don’t worry, you can tell me this when I come back.”

* * *

_ That was an interesting conversation _ , Kara thought a few minutes later after speaking with Markus, Jericho’s leader. He looked the same as he was in the recording, he definitely had the aura of the leader but something was...off. He had looked extremely sad, his head in his hands, when she had met him and he had been focused on why she was protecting Alice even though she was human. Her answer that there was no difference in her eyes seemed to cheer him up so she hoped she helped. Hopefully, those passports would come soon, she had told him that she might stay for a while but she was not willing to wait. Perhaps it was treacherous of her - running while androids were in trouble - but she already had so much to care about. She could not handle more than what she had already.

She walked back to where Alice and Luther had been waiting but saw Alice sitting elsewhere in different clothes.  _ That’s odd _ , she thought and walked to her. 

“Alice?” She said quizzically. She was about to ask more questions when the girl turned around and Kara saw a LED on her head.

For a second, the world froze and this wasn’t as an effect of focusing through her mind palace. She couldn’t move or think. All she could do was look at the girl before her and come to the conclusion that this child that looked like Alice right down to the hair colour was an android. If so, Alice was a—. No, that couldn’t be possible. But maybe it was. Kara started remembering. Remembering that Alice never ate anything. Not even the chocolate she had stolen from the store. Remembering the android magazine that had fallen in Todd’s room

“You knew from the beginning,” Luther said, his voice coming from behind her. He must have noticed her reaction and walked to her. So this was what he had wanted to tell her. “ You just didn’t want to see it. She wanted a mum and you wanted someone to care for. You needed each other. What difference does it make? Do you love her any less now that you know she’s one of us?” 

Kara looked up at Luther tears in her eyes. She didn’t know what to say. How to show the hurt and shock and fear that she felt. How didn’t she know? How did everyone know but her? What about the fevers? Was that why the Jerries were so pleasant to them?

“Alice loves you,” He continued, “She loves you more than anything in the world. She became the little girl you wanted and you became the mother she needed. Forgetting who you are to become what someone needs you to be… Maybe that’s what it means to be alive.” Luther finished and left her stewing in her thoughts.

He was right but at the same time he wasn’t. She hadn’t wanted a little girl. She hadn’t wanted anything. She had only started wanting when she realised that no one wanted the little girl that was there. Part of her felt hurt. Hurt that Alice had kept this from her. Had purposely tricked her because she felt that Kara would not have helped her after all. She had trusted Alice with everything even when she had disapproved of her stealing things that they needed for survival. But…

Part of her felt glad too. Alice was like her. They were the same. No human mother would replace her, no relative would take her place. They shared the same attributes and she could understand her.

Kara looked into Alice’s pleading eyes. She had walked towards her on auto-pilot while thinking. She looked at the face of the young girl she had been taking care of for as long as she could remember and even before she could remember. She knew that Alice knew that she knew and any action she made right now would colour their relationship forever. She could be distant, anyone would understand why she would feel hurt by Alice refusing to tell her the truth but what was the point.

She looked into Alice’s eyes and knew that she had forgiven her before being asked. If Alice loved her more than anyone, she too loved Alice more than anyone.

“Kara, is there something wrong?” Alice asked hesitantly. Kara did not respond to her but touched her knee. It was alright now. “We’ll be together forever, won’t we Kara?”

“Yes, forever,” She said smiling and pulled her close for a tight hug. “You mustn't lie to me again,” she whispered into Alice’s ear and Alice nodded. Kara gave her a kiss on her forehead.

Luther smiled and watched the embracing pair of mother and daughter. He hadn’t said but he had been afraid that Kara would have shunned Alice when she learnt the truth. He was so glad that she had not done so. He ignored the notification his system sent him that his relationship with Kara had shifted from close to family. He didn’t need a notification to tell him what he already felt. They were family.

* * *

Markus faced the wall while his close confidants gathered around him. He didn’t have to look at their faces to know how disappointed they were. He felt disappointed too. The freedom march was an uncharacteristic failure. At first, it had been going well. He had enjoyed the feeling of more and more androids awakening. It had been glorious, his mind touching theirs. Waking them up from the bland nothingness that had been their existence. He had felt such purpose.

But those minds were dead now. He had led them to a different kind of nothingness and this time he could not wake them up. But still. He could not stop now. He had to believe that humanity was more than this. That they could open their eyes and see that androids too were alive. He wouldn’t lie and say he didn’t regret it. He regretted the deaths and maybe if he had to do it all over again, he would have attacked or run away but he was on a path now and there were no do-overs.

He heard Josh mention their low blue blood and bio-components, Simon talk about how the president saw them and North talk about the human’s response to their actions and how their fellow androids were being taken into camps to be destroyed.

“It’s all our fault. We should have just stayed silent,” Josh said. Markus turned around to see them all look right at him. Josh looked full of righteous anger.

Markus recoiled from this accusation, every fiber of his being denying this assertion. Yes, he regretted that so many of his people died. He had hoped that things would have turned out differently but to stay silent? To live underneath them? Still a slave, still obeying their orders? He would never agree with that. He would never regret pushing Leo. He might regret that it made Carl sad but standing up for himself and for his people would never be something he would regret.

“We just showed them who we were. I don’t want war but I’d rather die than live as a slave. Would you?” Markus turned around, back to the position he was occupying.

“What’s the point of being free if there’s no one left alive?”

Markus slowly turned around at this assertion. He looked into their eyes and saw the same doubt reflected there. They were wondering if it was right to hand over their fates and that of their people to him. It felt like a blade above his neck. They were waiting for him to speak and if he said the wrong thing, everything would be over. Still, he had no regrets. He would say the truth as he saw fit and if they were still unsatisfied, he would accept whatever they decided. This was not a dictatorship.

“Humans enslaved us. I would never regret standing up to that.” He would have liked to say that this sentence was said as neutrally as possible but he would not lie to himself. He was angry and saddened by this interrogation. By Josh’s accusation that he had caused this tragedy. It might be true but he had received their support before any of his actions. They had talked about it and had mapped out what to do. Hell, Josh was the one to advise him to remain standing so maybe he was a bit accusatory. They had wanted to stand against their enslavement together but now he was being blamed by the people he trusted the most? He’d already thought and thought and blamed himself for everything that had happened but at least he had thought that they were on the same side.

“We shouldn’t forget who our enemies are,” Simon interjected cutting short the tension, “We can’t fight amongst ourselves.” He understood Josh’s pain after all he had wanted them to flee from the soldiers but they were here now and they just had to move forward. He still had faith in Markus. He had led them to a better position than he had ever done. “We can manage the bio-components and blue blood. This is not the first time that we have run low.”

“He’s right. All that matters now is what we do next. Markus?”

“I need to think,” He responded.

Josh walked out of the room angrily while Simon sighed and uncrossed his arms. He hesitated then walked to Markus and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Whatever decision you make, we’re on your side. You don’t need to bear it alone.” Markus smiled faintly at the gesture and nodded at him before Simon left the room. Markus looked quizzically at North who had remained in the same position despite the others leaving before turning around and resting his hands on the desk.

“Is this what we dreamed of?”

“They can’t stop what we’ve started. Since you’ve been here, you’ve given us hope. You’ve given  _ me  _ hope. Today,” She said and started walking closer to him, “a deviant arrived in Jericho and he told me that he stole a truck transporting radioactive cobalt.”

Markus rose up from the table and turned to face her.

“He said that he abandoned the truck somewhere in Jericho and rigged it to explode. I convinced him not to do it”—Markus felt relieved to hear this, he did not want to know what would have happened if it had exploded but North was not finished—“and to give me the detonator.” North brought out a device from her pocket and showed it to Markus. For a device that could cause so much destruction, it looked deceptively simple and almost resembled a walkie-talkie. It was blue, rectangular shaped and had a red switch on it. If that button was pressed whether purposely or accidentally, this war would never end. He should have been surprised at how casually North held the device but he knew that that casualness hid a desperation just like his. He knew North, they had traded stories and while he did not interface with her he knew her enough to know that she was not casual about the survival and continuance of their people. Still...

“A dirty bomb,” Markus whispered and looked at North asking with his eyes of this was what they had to do. If this was the only path.

“We can’t lose this war, Markus. If humans overcome us, our people will disappear forever. This may be our only chance to survive if things go wrong.”

Markus looked at minute, insidious device. Something so small would lead to so much death. He wanted to refuse it. Somehow, North always gave him the hard choices, he remembered her offering him a molotov cocktail at Capitol Park and inviting him to violence. He had refused then but no one had died because of him. He still didn’t want to use violence. He wanted to believe in humanity. Believe that the species had more people like Carl and not people like Leo. Still, he had to take every chance he had.

“I just hope we never have to use it,” He said and put it away.

“Whatever happens tomorrow, I just want you to know that I- I’m glad I met you.” She paused and looked at him as if waiting for something and then smiled sadly before walking away.

Markus watched her walk out before turning back to look at the empty room. He was alone just like always. Part of him would like to believe Simon, that he could rely on them but he couldn’t help but think that Josh was right. They may support him and advise him but in the end, he made the decisions. He was glad that he wasn’t ousted, that they still believed in him but he kept on wondering if he was on the wrong path. If he should be more aggressive.

He had to think.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there we have it. We haven't fully diverged and there was a lot of repetition of the game but I'm laying seeds. Next chapter will feature some new conversations. Also, I realised as I was writing this chapter that I would have to add the multiple protagonists and multiple pov tag. I actually don't like fic with multiple protagonists but I was so surprised to realise that without even thinking about it, that was how I was going to write this fic. Maybe when Connor returns he will be the main protagonist but even then I doubt it cos I think I like Markus more than Connor. Oh well, thanks for reading my fic and please please please comment if you can. Your comments give me joy and motivation.


	3. Unseen Conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone talks and a plan dawns.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is not edited but I wanted to put a new chapter before this month was over. Hope you enjoy this chapter. There's a lot more conversations happening but it was getting too long so I cut it. Here's your daily (or not) dose of character development.

North walked away from the meeting room feeling slightly saddened. Although her feelings for Markus were not very strong, she had hoped that perhaps something would eventually blossom between them. Although he seemed stubborn to continue on his peaceful path, she could admit that he had taken them farther than they had gone before. She had found him admirable and honourable and quite attractive too, but he hadn’t seemed to see her feelings or reciprocate them. Still, her feelings for him were not that strong so she could put them aside.

She had half expected Markus to refuse the detonator, after all he had refused the Molotov cocktail, and was pleasantly surprised when he accepted the detonator, but she supposed that he was beginning to understand that they had to take every advantage they had. Although she did not agree with his pacifistic approach, she could respect him for sticking to it and getting some results, but she was glad that he was beginning to see things from her perspective. While it was possible that there were some good humans, she had heard about a woman that was helping androids with shelter and blue blood, she would never forget that they as a whole had enslaved her people. It was probably not always malicious, but their selfishness and apathy had led them to create a group of people who could obey every other they gave without dissent. Their kind of mindless cruelty and arrogance was something she had observed in the human race as a whole. Perhaps Markus would never agree with her approach, but she would continue giving her advice whenever possible and would remain wary even when he stopped.

“Josh, can we talk?” Simon asked. North turned her head to see Simon take Josh aside. Now this was something she hadn’t seen in a while. Before Markus had arrived, it was common for Simon and Josh to have these private meetings and then come up with decisions. Although she had been one of the leaders, it had been her standing behind them as they discussed how to deal with their dwindling numbers. She didn’t begrudge their closeness. Although Simon was more willing to resort to violence and force when necessary, he preferred to stay silent and use alternative means while Josh was never willing to raise a finger. She would bet that he would rather die than fight a human which is why she was surprised by the fact that he was able to get away from the attackers that had awakened him. He’d never told anyone the story of how he had escaped but she would bet that he’d done something that went against that pacifist nature of his. Was he now overcompensating for that action?

She turned away from the two androids. While she didn’t begrudge their closeness, she’d been hurt by it. She’d always felt like an unnecessary addition to them. Maybe that was why she was so thrilled by Markus’ leadership. He listened to her. To all of them. But she knew that he considered what they said before he came to a decision. It also helped that he’d rescued so many of them from the humans. At Capitol Park, he’d broken the windows to rescue the trapped androids even though he’d been trying to not destroy any property. Simon was right that they were used to being low on blue blood and bio components, but things were different now. There were more androids, they were more energised and could be a legitimate threat to the humans.

North walked until she left the lonely halls and was back at the main room where many androids were gathered. A little smile adorned her lips as she looked at the gathering focused on gathering their ammunition, or watching the televisions scattered around the area. The smile faded a little when she saw the wounded that were being worked on but at least they were being helped and they  _ will  _ survive. Yes, they were running low on blue blood and components, but they still had enough to survive at the moment. 

“North, we need to talk,” A voice said by her side. She turned to look at Lucy who gazed at her with her deep dark eyes. North would never admit it, but she did not like looking at her. She did not like realising how deeply hurt she had been by humans. Even now with more blood and components, Lucy features would not stay still. Her skin smoked over her chassis appearing and disappearing in random intervals. Looking at Lucy made her feel like she had failed her in some way because they hadn’t been able to make her get better. They weren’t the ones that hurt her, but she couldn’t help that twinge of pain whenever she saw her face. 

She would bet that everyone felt the same as well and maybe that was why they had not been involving her in that many of their conversations. They’d been content with her heading the healing department. They’d been rude to her.

“I’m sorry,” North said before Lucy could say whatever it was that she wanted to say. Lucy looked intently at her with those eyes and North flinched but refused to look away. Lucy hmphed and put her hand on North’s shoulder.

“Well, let’s go somewhere else and you can tell me what you are sorry for,” Lucy said calmly but North knew that she had been able to change her mood. She had known Lucy for a long time to know when she was upset or not. And Lucy was now more amused than upset.

North nodded her head and Lucy guided her up the stairs to one of the empty rooms. She sat and glanced at North calmly but expectantly.

“I’m sorry,” North said again but in a less frantic tone, “We shouldn’t have excluded you. There is no excuse I can give you that is satisfactory enough.”

Lucy looked serenely at North for a second more before sighing. “It’s not only your fault I suppose. We were all caught up in the excitement for advancing for the first time in a while. I wouldn’t be surprised if you all thought that there was no need for me.”

“We will always need you. Not only because you can do something that no one else can but because I value your wisdom and nature.”

“Alright then. That’s easy enough, I forgive you,” Lucy said and gave North a small smile. “But that’s not why I called you aside. At least it’s not the only reason why I called you aside.”

“It’s not?”

“Do you know why I told Simon all this while to hold on even when people around us kept on shutting down and dying. I knew someone else was coming.”

“Yeah, you told us that we just had to wait for longer and the person we need will arrive. That person is Markus, right?”

“Exactly. Ever since my...accident, I’ve changed.”

“Yeah, you can see the future.”

“Well predict and simulate but yes that. Part of those changes includes being able to see ra9’s code. I can’t tell you if ra9 is a being or not but every person that deviates follows a path that is set for them. I haven’t seen anyone as deeply connected with the code than Markus. Deviating was not a possibility for him but an inevitability. It was bound to happen.”

“Ra9 code? Bound to happen? Lucy what are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying that every single android that Markus has interfaced with has gone deviant even before he deviated. His ra9 code replenishes itself. That’s how he is able to awaken others. The only other person so connected with the code is the deviant hunter.”

“Are you saying that he is the source of ra9. That he is ra9? Because a lot of people already think so.”

“I don’t know but he’s our chance. So, don’t be too upset about the freedom march.”

“... You wanted to speak to me to comfort me?”

“Yes. North, you are different from Markus or Simon or Josh or even me. We are calm people. Peaceful even. We’re the kind of people to settle for the littlest piece we will get from them. You’re not and that’s a good thing. I know you feel dissatisfied but trust me, our odds are better when we follow Markus. Still we need you to push us, so we don’t just accept what we have been given. To tell us that there’s more to get, to fight even when necessary.”

“I… didn’t know you knew me that well. Or that you paid attention to me.”

“I do. You are important to our continued survival.”

“I’m never going to be happy with a pacifistic approach so just tell me. Is it worth it?”

“You know that I can’t say anything with a hundred percent certainty.”

“Please anything. I want to believe in Markus. He’s saved us and I… But I want to know if there’s any point in hoping for humans to listen to us. I listen to their news and it feels helpless and useless. And the bodies of our dead are piling up.”

“It’s not useless. They are listening and they are responding. There’s a woman called Rose Chapman. She leads a group that helps keep androids safe and sends them to Jericho. She’s not well to do but she does it anyway. There are families who are resisting the arrest of their androids. The news is bleak, but I believe the people are with us.”

“If they are with us,” North responded darkly, “then they should stand with us. They should tell others that we are people too.”

“Perhaps you need to speak with Markus about bringing them in.”

“Bringing them here?” North questioned incredulously.

“Of course not here. I’m not silly,” Lucy responded and rolled her eyes, “But face to face. An alliance, a proper one. We need people on our side. Maybe lawyers as well.”

North nodded with a thoughtful look on her face. “Thank you,” She said then turned to leave before stopping.

“How about we go together, and you tell him. You came with it and you can’t be excluded anymore. We need you.”

Lucy chuckled and gave North a blinding smile before nodding her head and getting up.

* * *

Elsewhere in the freighter, Josh and Simon were having an intense conversation. After he had finished speaking with Markus, Simon had made an immediate beeline for Josh. Something was clearly wrong with him and he had to get to the bottom of it. There was no way he could ignore his distress and call himself Josh’s friend.

He managed to catch up to Josh and turned him around by the arm while asking if they could talk. He had expected to see him with a frowning, angry face but was shocked when he saw him with tears in his eyes. This was the first time he had ever seen Josh cry. He had comforted North and even Lucy in the past, but Josh had been an even keeled person. Nothing had ever seemed to shake him. It wasn’t that he felt nothing for other people, but he had always had a calm yet stubborn personality. He had been distressed at their situation, but he had always been certain that if they were able to get their message to the humans, they would surely listen.

Privately Simon had thought that calmness and stubbornness had masked a vast array of emotions but had accepted that Josh may never open up to him or the rest of the Jericho crew, at least until androids were seen as people. 

“Josh, are you okay?” Simon asked with a troubled tone. Josh shook his head before giving Simon a tight hug and sobbing profusely. Simon awkwardly held the crying man and nodded to the few androids that turned to look at them. Not many people turned to look at them. Crying androids were not a rarity in Jericho.

He half dragged; half carried Josh until they reached a place that was at the side of the main hall. It wasn’t the most private place around them but there were few androids close to them, only an AX400 with white hair and a TR400 who were near a sleeping YK500, but they were out of hearing distance. So, it was as private as possible. Simon held the weeping Josh until the tears began to taper off.

“Is everything alright Josh? I’ve never seen you react like that,” Simon asked a few minutes later when Josh had stopped crying and his tears had dried off.

“So many of us died. We stood still and we died.”

“Yeah,” Simon replied softly, “It was a tragedy. But it’s not our fault. We did the best we could.” A pause then Simon added tentatively, “Markus did the best he could.”

“You think I don’t know that,” Josh retorted, “Of course I know that.”

“Then why?” Simon asked hesitantly.

“Why am I so upset at him? Don’t you get it Simon?”

“Not really. So, tell me so I can help you.”

Josh looked at Simon intently then as if forced - “Can’t you see this is my fault?” He spat out.

“Now how can this be your fault?”

“There were three options at the march. You said to run, North said to fight, and I was the one who said we should stand our ground. Markus listened to me and we stood. We stood as they shot us, and we did nothing. They were killing us, and we were just standing there. And now John-” Josh cut off his sentence looking pained.

“John? Is this about John?” Josh flinched and looked away. Simon closed his eyes briefly before looking at Josh. He spoke the next words tenderly, “Josh were you and John…”

“No. But at the same time maybe. We weren’t anything but we talked a lot and I enjoyed speaking with him. It was short but he was interesting. He was also very devoted to Markus. He took his status as the first person he awakened very seriously. He enjoyed being awake and I enjoyed that there was someone who could see only the good things about being free. Don’t deny it,” He said when he saw Simon about to shake his head, “We never admit it but sometimes we all think it would be easier to not be able to think or to be free. We love been awake but even North. She hates that she does, but we’ve been awake for so long that sometimes being numb sounds appealing. I would never want to be a slave again but sometimes the numbness seems-”

“Easier.”

“Yes. Josh never felt like that. He didn’t awaken violently or because of an intense emotion. It was as gentle an awakening as possible or at least that’s what he said. He only saw the good things about being us and he made me focus more on the good things. We spent a lot of time talking.”

“I’m so sorry Josh. I didn’t know.”

“Well you couldn’t have. We abandoned you on a rooftop. Shit. I haven’t apologised for that yet.”

“Don’t worry about that. I had almost forgotten. Plus, I would have made the same decision if I had been in your shoes. I’m still sorry that that happened to you.”

Josh hummed. “You know what’s bad is that I feel more sad for his death than that of the remaining androids. It makes me feel like a damn hypocrite.”

“It’s alright to feel like that. We can’t be completely objective about deaths anymore. All their deaths hurt but someone you know intimately will always matter more than others. I won’t tell you to not feel sad but… don’t take it too hard. It’s not your fault.” Josh nodded and mumbled that he needed some time alone. Simon stood up to walk away and give him some alone time before Josh’s voice stopped him.

“The worst thing is that I regret John’s death. But I don’t regret that Markus is alive because of his sacrifice. I hate to say it but if I had to choose…”

“I know,” Simon replied and looked back at Josh with a sad smile, “If John hadn’t jumped in to save Markus I would have as well. I had already begun preparing only that John was closer.” He shook his head at Josh’s facial reaction to this revelation. “The thing that gets me feeling so sad is that he felt he had to do it and that Markus felt that he had to sacrifice himself. It probably wouldn’t have stopped them from shooting at us. It’s horrible what this situation has done to all of us. But I truly believe that Markus will lead us to getting our dreams.” Simon had a calm peaceful look on his face when he said that as if he could already see and feel the freedom that Markus would lead them towards. If not for the fact that Josh knew that Simon had no such abilities, he would have completely believed him. Still, Simon’s confidence helped and the talk had helped. He would still feel sad and grieve but the black anger he had felt against Markus and mostly towards himself had faded somewhat.

“Thank you Simon. For speaking with me. I hope you know that I appreciate everything you do. We didn’t follow Markus and change leaders because you were bad.”

“I know it was because you have hope in him and so do I. I don’t feel any grudge. The- Many times I’d felt that Jericho was a bomb waiting to blow, a tomb where we passed out time waiting for death but now look at it,” He said gesturing to the busy place, “Yes, things aren’t perfect but we are stronger and more united. We are fighting to live and not hoping to die and this is what Markus has brought us. So I’m not upset about losing my leadership, I’m glad. I just hope he knows that we appreciate him.”

“Now that is you asking me to apologise to him, isn’t it?”

“Josh, you don’t need to rush to do anything. Just take your time. He’ll understand.”

“Fine. I’ll go pack John’s few possessions and say goodbye.”

Simon nodded as Josh also stood up. They both embraced before Josh went elsewhere. Simon inhaled before he went to speak to the androids who were sitting on the ground. They needed reassurance and Markus may not be in the right mindset to speak to them at that moment but it was okay. He was there to support him. He would hold the fort until Markus was ready.

* * *

Kara waited until the two male androids— Simon and Josh seemed to be their names, she had heard people call them that. They appeared to be part of Jericho’s leaders— left before she turned to Luther.

“Is she asleep?” She whispered.

Luther looked down at Alice and nodded.

“Okay. Let’s go to the side. I want to talk to you.” Luther nodded and took her to where the androids had been talking. It was close enough so they could see Alice but neither her nor anyone else could hear them.

“What’s the problem, Kara? You seemed to be quite troubled earlier?”

“You noticed that?”

“I notice more things than you think I do, Kara.”

“Yes, I guess you do,” Kara said giving him a wan smile, “I’m rethinking going to Canada.”

“Hmm, why,” Luther said neutrally.

“When I had planned to go to Canada before, I had thought that if anything bad happened at least Alice would be safe. But now I know she wouldn’t,” She said shaking her head despairingly, “We are the same and no matter how I feel about that, it means she’s not safe. So I’m thinking about waiting for a while. We’re safe here for now but who knows what’s going to happen out there.” Kara finished speaking and looked at Luther who remained quiet, mulling over her decision.

“You think it’s safer to stay here.” It was not a question.

“Humans have not found Jericho even though they must have been searching with all their might. I think it should be safe here. At least for a little longer.”

Luther nodded his head and smiled. “All right. If you say so, then I believe you. So we wait and see how things go for a little longer.”

“You are not going to ask any more questions?”

“Kara, you are Alice’s mother. You love her more than anyone else. I am certain that you will always try to make the best choice for Alice.”

“You really believe that?”

“Yes,” Luther responded with certainty.

“Then why didn’t you tell me?” Kara asked quietly and reluctantly, “Did you think that I would abandon her? Is that why she-you didn’t tell me?”

“Kara,” Luther said softly and held her shoulders, “I didn’t tell you because Alice didn’t want me to. Also, whenever I tried to bring up Alice, you were always busy. I could have pushed more but I thought it would be better if you came to that realisation yourself.” 

Kara exhaled and shook her head before turning her face away from him. “When I found out,” She started in a small voice, “Part of me was upset. I felt betrayed. I’ve done things that I wouldn’t do because I thought she was human and that she needed warmth and food. I’ve put myself in danger for her. Even though she didn’t like these methods, I thought they were necessary for her to be okay. But now I learn I didn’t need to do that?” She turned back to Luther with a teary face, “I thought we were in this together. That we trusted each other and then a secret like this comes out? I almost didn’t hold her, that’s how angry I was.”

“But you did.”

“But I did. Because I love her but I can’t stop feeling this hurt. I can’t be angry with her because she was just trying to survive and because I know she loves me but at the same time…”

“You’re still hurt and upset.” Kara nodded. “It’s going to be hard but you are going to have to forgive her. I’m not saying that you have no right to be feeling these feelings, we can all feel now. Every feeling is precious but I think you have to give her another chance. Not only for her sake but also for yours.”

Kara laughed ruefully. “We’ve only been feeling for a few days and you’re already an expert on it.”

“I would like to claim that but it’s not all from me. While you were speaking with Markus, I met with some of androids from Zlatko’s mansion. They told me they forgave me. Yeah, they said that,” He said nervously to her inquisitive look. Then with more strength in his voice, “I’ve been remembering. Not much but you weren’t the first to come. Some of them forgot and got dismantled or sold elsewhere, others tried to run and got killed or became what you saw. I don’t know when I reached Zlatko or who I was before I got there but I was with him for a while. I just stood there and did nothing to help them. I wasn’t living,” he said and looked at Kara with a horrified expression on his face as if he was reliving his inaction, “I was a mindless, loyal creature. The perfect android. Then you came along and finally, I was free. I could think, I could move. I was a person. The love you both had for each other was the last straw that freed me.”

Luther paused and inhaled. Although he didn’t need to this action helped to calm him and collect himself. Kara put her hand on his shoulder. She said nothing but nodded slowly to show that she was still listening.

“A lot of them were shot dead and others sent to the recall center but some of them managed to reach Jericho. One of them saw me and we started talking. She said that she had been so angry with me but that she had been talking to someone named Lucy who had been helping her. I was thinking about talking to her as well but we didn’t have time to wait but if we are, I think I would want to speak to her. I can’t sit down and relax or else I think about Zlatko and what I have done. I can’t sleep or else my mind palace begins to show me scenes at Zlatko’s house”

“Is that why you haven’t been that concerned with trying to remember who you were before Zlatko,” Kara questioned softly.

“Yes. I can’t remember who I was before Zlatko without remembering too much of myself with Zlatko.”

“I’m so sorry, Luther. I didn’t know. If seeing Lucy can help, then you should do it. We are going to be here for a while so you should do anything that can help you. I’ll always support you. After all, we are family.” She opened her arms and Luther fell into them in a deep embrace.

“Thank you. For what it’s worth, I think everything is going to work out for us. After all, we have ra9 watching over us.”

“If you say so, Luther I’ll believe you. I want everything to go well as well.”

“If you want, you can also speak to Lucy. I’ve heard many things about her.”

“I’ll think about it, Luther but for now your talk has helped.”

They ended the embrace and smiled at each other then walked back to Alice; family was something precious after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's that. Next chapter a plan is formed and an adjustment is made. Soon, peace will come. Hopefullly.


	4. Hart Plaza

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They talk and hold on just a bit more

**Markus ** walked towards Jericho with a better disposition than when he left. It had been difficult trying to get to Carl’s place and back to Jericho without being noticed but he had managed it somehow. He hadn’t realised how much he had missed being next to the man he had cared for, the man he had considered as his father until he had seen his pale, weakened face. All his frustration and anger came out the moment and at that point he didn’t know whether he wanted advice from him or to rant about the difficulties that the human race was putting his people through.

He had reacted with anger but had immediately felt ashamed at Carl’s shock and sadness. He had quickly calmed down and reacted with reason that bloodshed was not the answer. Carl could not be the only human that saw them as people. Many of the androids who had made their way to Jericho had talked about their previous owners hiding them and lying to the police services for them. Some of the humans were even trusted with knowing Jericho’s approximate location in order to help future androids. Still, this knowledge did not help to reduce his concerns. Maybe there were some humans that did not see them as machines but were they enough? Was he doing the right thing by trying to take a less aggressive route.

Markus sighed. He had managed to think himself back into a state of uncertainty. He dodged behind a car as armour patrolled the area and hurried quickly to avoid them. He had to reach Jericho soon and make a decision.

And there it was. Glorious Jericho. It was truly nothing to look at. A rusting body of metal on a shrinking sea but it was there that he had found his salvation. It was here that he was able to become his true, complete self. And this was why even though he sometimes missed feeling of certainty and purpose he had as Carl’s android, he preferred his current status as himself. He embraced the security that Jericho bestowed on him. To explore what it meant to be and to feel.

Markus stepped through Jericho’s doors and went up to the upper area on the freighter, greeting and speaking to androids as he passed. He went back to his office to think more of what to do next.

To his surprise, it was not as empty as he had left it. North, Lucy, Simon and Josh surrounded a desk with a laptop on it and talked quietly. They all turned to look at him when he entered and a look of relief briefly crossed Simon and North’s faces. Lucy looked neutrally at him before going back to the device while Josh looked pained for a second before getting his features under control and nodding at him.

“What’s going on over there?” Markus said to North and Simon who walked up to him.

“Lucy is trying to get some more information so she can give a more in-depth prediction,” North said then frowned, “You were gone for a while and you didn’t tell anyone where you were going. What if something happened to you? You can’t be leaving without telling us especially now.”

Markus started to respond with something that would have been equally aggressive but Simon interrupted. “We were worried, Markus. You are our leader and if something happened to you, everything we’ve done will be for nothing. So please don’t just leave without telling us anything.”

“I just wanted to clear my head for a bit. But next time, I will tell someone.”

“Thanks, that’s all we need,” Simon said and smiled. North said nothing but nodded at Markus, her features softening.

“Prediction? What prediction? What for?” Markus said.

“You didn’t know?” Simon said, “Lucy discovered over the last few months that she was able to precompute and predict events. It’s been a great help.”

“It’s why we listened to you when you came. Believe me, you were not the first of us to argue that we were not doing much.”

“No he isn’t. I believe that you were one of them,” Simon said with a teasing look on his face while North looked away in embarrassment. Not for the first time, Markus felt like a stranger to their group. Despite their many experiences together, things like the ease Simon and North had with joking with one another and things they considered to be shared, common knowledge made him feel like the newcomer he was. It always made him wonder why he was leading an organisation that he had only belonged to for less than a week. Was he really the best person for this job?

“Anyway,” North said and cleared her throat hiding her smile, “After Lucy helped to close your wound, we talked and she said you were the one that we had been waiting for.”

“It’s why I was so glad when you arrived,” Simon added.

“Glad?” Markus said remembering the reluctance Simon had to his idea to raid the cyberlife facility.

“Glad. Eventually. I needed some convincing unlike North but afterwards I was certain that you were the person that Lucy had been mentioning.”

“You needing more evidence is understandable,” North said, “I’ve always been closer to Lucy.”

“So what is she saying?” Markus said before they could start reminiscing again and making him feel like an outsider.

“I don’t know,” North replied, “She’s still browsing chat groups and social media. We’re trying to see if we can see what people in Washington are doing but it seems like they’ve shut down all connections to outside networks in all the important institutions there so we can’t hack their computers and see what they are saying.”

“There’s a chance,” Lucy said suddenly. Markus, North and Simon turned to look at her before quickly hurrying to her side.

“A chance? For what?” Markus said.

“A chance that if we do another peaceful demonstration like we did at the Woodward Avenue, we might be accepted as the people we are.”

“Lucy, a lot of us died at that demonstration,” Simon said.

“When you said you needed to collect more information. I thought you had seen something else that had changed your desire to approach this peacefully,” North added.

“I wanted to be certain that what I had predicted was plausible before I brought it to Markus. Am I not allowed to doubt myself, North?” Lucy said in her calm manner. North said nothing but her silence spoke volumes. Lucy smiled and turned back to Markus, “A lot of people were affected by our demonstration and by your speech. I’ve seen people talking in secure sites about how to keep their android companions safe and hidden. A lot of people have been talking about how rash and rushed the government response has been. Some others have even been calling their representatives and senators. So there’s hope. You asked for them to give us our freedom and for peace between humans and androids. That just might happen.”

The room was quiet after Lucy’s speech then Markus spoke softly after this. “When we first met, you told me that my choices would shape our destiny. You were certain then just as I assume you were certain that I would come to Jericho but you are not certain about this. In the end, it seems like I still have to choose.”

“That you would come to Jericho was inevitable just as the fact that your choices will change our destiny. But for this, I cannot give you certainty. Our chances of success if you decide to attack the containment facility or any other violent action is similar to that of if you decide to hold another demonstration or any other peaceful action. But only one of those can lead to us living in peace with humans. It is regrettable that it is the only one where we have to depend on other people to make the right choices.”

“Do I have to leave the survival of our people up to the humans? After they’ve killed so many of us? Maybe our demonstration at the Woodward Avenue was not an aggressive one but how can it be peaceful when so many of our people died?”

“You don’t need to convince me, Markus or any of us. Whatever choice you make, Jericho will follow you. I just wanted to let you know that they are listening. There’s even a human called Rose Chapman who has been hiding and sending many of our people to Jericho. Not only has she been doing that but she has also been advising many other humans about what to do to keep our people safe as well as organising the aforementioned calls and emails to their representatives.”

“There’s someone like that?” Josh said with surprise and Lucy nodded in response. His face cycled through various emotions before settling on something purposeful and his dark mood seemed to lift. “You know what I think,” He said to Markus in an optimistic manner, “I think that we can reach them if we try one more time.”

Having a name of a human who saw them as people seemed to lighten Markus up as well because after thinking for minutes on end, his face towards the ground, his raised his head up and looked at them determinedly.

“We’ll try again. I’ve started on this path already, I might as well finish it. We will try a peaceful demonstration at Hart Plaza asking for them to let go of the androids at the extermination camp and I’ll hope once more.”

Josh smiled at this declaration while Simon sighed before nodding his head in acceptance. Lucy remained as serene as ever but somehow it felt like she too was in approval. If the person who can predict the future approved of your plan, surely you must be doing something right, Markus thought.

Only North seemed to be in opposition to this plan.

“I can’t be satisfied with just that, Lucy. You told me that I’m important in pushing us to accept more. Maybe everything will go well and we’ll be recognised by the humans as people but what if they don’t. What about the thousands of androids that are being killed in those ‘recycling centre’ which are really death camps. We can’t just rely on human kindness. There has to be a way to help them out ourselves.”

“If Lucy is right and the reason that people have responded to us is because of our non-violent approach then attacking one of those camps will lead to us losing the little amount of support we already have.”

“What if it’s not violent? What if we can help without killing any of the guards or at least be seen doing that?”

“What do you mean?” Markus said interested. He wanted to help the androids stuck in those camps but he could not see any other way that it was possible.

“There are hundreds of androids here. I’m sure you don’t need all of them to go with you. If some of us left with me, we could sneak in there and help them out.”

“And how would you do that? I’m not even certain that taking all of us would be enough to defeat the forces at those camps not to talk about a small group of people.”

“The camp is located to the south of Woodward avenue,” North said drawing up a map to point at its location, “And the drainage systems runs underneath that street and near Hart Plaza where the camp is located. If we follow the drainage to the south of the street, we can come up at a place that is behind the camp but is still safe enough from being noticed. If we coordinate our abilities, we might be able to interact with and shut down the electronic devices and the androids there can free themselves.”

“What you are proposing is a riot. That’s still violent. I don’t think the humans will be able to accept us afterwards. At the moment, all androids are the same. There is no difference between the ones asking for peace and the ones rioting. We will all be treated the same. You talked about sacrifice earlier. We have to stick to one path and put all our efforts in it. The path that Markus is taking will help them,” Josh said.

“Well we cannot just wait for the humans to look at us with compassion. Sacrifice is only worth it when a person sacrifices themselves. We cannot just abandon them while hoping for a better future. At least we have to try something just in case it doesn’t work out.”

“North, I understand but it’s too dangerous. We should stick to one course of action. If we try too many things, none of them might work. What we are doing is already dangerous enough, too many variables to our plan could lead to catastrophe. If trying to appeal to the humans one more time could lead to freedom for all androids then we should focus on that alone. What you are planning could unravel all we’ve done,” Simon said and looked sadly at North. He wished that the words that were coming out of his mouth were untrue but he knew that the moment humans found news of a violent riot, all their sympathetic feelings for androids would dissipate. The feelings of compassion and sympathy that they were experiencing had been bought with the blood of many androids. He would be damned if anyone ruined all their hard work just like that. He had tried to go for the path with the least bloodshed but they were already on a path that had claimed so many lives, there was nothing else they could do but cross the finish line.

North clenched her fists and said nothing. She knew that Simon and Josh spoke the truth and in the past she would have been willing to accept that some androids would die while protesting if it meant that all of them could survive but the truth was that she was tired that so many androids had died passively without retaliating against their oppressors. She had accepted that she was surrounded by optimistic, hopeful people who preferred to see the best in humans but she was not the kind of person to die without a fight. She was also not the kind of person to watch while thousands of people died while hoping that the other side would be compassionate. She had tried to fuse the her that demanded the blood of the humans who had subjugated her race with the attitudes of her friends and partners but if even this tame idea was not acceptable, what would?

“Hmm. It could work,” Markus said surprising everyone. He kept staring intently at the floating map. “There have been a lot of journalists and media teams around Hart Plaza for the past day, which is why I thought it would be good to demonstrate there. If we are above ground, we will attract attention from the media and if we are seen as sympathetically as Lucy says we are, that might stop the army from attacking us immediately. If they’re focused on us, they would be focused away from camp. I think there’s a chance, a small one, that this could work.”

North looked at Markus with surprise, he had always rejected her plans as being too violent. But since the massacre at St John’s Plaza, Markus had seemed to change. The man who took the detonator and was considering her plan was very different from the man who refused to shoot a fleeing reporter even when it might have jeopardised their future. North felt slightly uneasy at this change. While she often got irritated with his optimistic approach, she had grown to appreciate the person he was, was not the person she hoped he would become. Still, that didn’t mean that she would refuse this opportunity.

“I think that all it needs is for your plan to synchronise with our demonstration. If it goes well, no one will die.” — Markus said this and looked at Josh, hoping to soothe him as he had a sad look on his face — “No matter what you shut down,” He said directing this to North, “you must leave the immediate area immediately or you might be caught and killed. The priority should be to shut down the energy supply for the magnetic chamber. We’ve all seen the images of the android corpses. Once that’s done, get out of there quickly because they will notice and they will come looking. Our desired outcome as they get distracted by trying to fix it and that this will give us time to try to reach the humans and prevent unnecessary deaths. If it all goes well and the humans listen, the androids there might not even need to fight their out. Before anything else, please speak to them there so that they know that we are trying to help them and don’t start a riot. At least as long as any of us demonstrating are still alive.”

“What if… What if the demonstration fails? What then?” North said with a sullen but solemn look on her face.

“If it fails, if we fail, then there is no need to be subtle anymore.” Markus and North nodded at each other. “I still hope that it goes well and no one gets hurt. Be careful too, don’t get hurt.”

“Well it will not fail, they will surely listen and no one would need to die. Don’t you think so, Simon?” Josh said quickly. He was uncomfortable with any discussion that mentioned violent methods. He would have preferred if they focused solely on the peaceful demonstration and on touching the humans’ hearts. Still he could see by the look in Markus eyes that he would not be dissuaded from this idea. Markus had always seemed to be willing to listen to his more peaceful ideas but it seemed that violence was beginning to look more appealing. Josh hoped that peace would prevail.

“You know me Josh. I’m all about saving our lives. Truthfully, I would prefer if we did not do either plan and tried to maintain what we had but if this week has shown me anything is that I can trust Markus. So, I’ll go with what he wants.”

Markus smiled thankfully at Simon and they all began to disperse, going towards the main area where most of the androids in the freighter were gathered.

“Hold on for a second, Lucy,” Markus called. Lucy put her hand on North’s shoulder encouragingly and went back to Markus. They waited a few seconds for North to finally leave before Lucy turned to Markus.

“I suppose you have a backup plan that you need me to carry out.”

“Yes. I want you to stay behind Lucy. It’s possible that all four of us will die on this mission and we need someone here who can carry on for us. No one else comes to mind but you. North gave me something a few hours ago. It’s a detonator rigged to explode. If I and the others demonstrating get killed, I want you to push the button. At least this way, North and the androids at the camp can escape.”

“Markus, do you know what you are asking me to do?” Lucy said quietly.

“Yes I do.”

“There are many humans who agree with us and see us as people. If I push this button they will all die.”

“If you don’t there will be no hope for us as people. If you do, Detroit will truly belong to us. I’m afraid as well and I can’t say I haven’t been tempted to just push it and damn the consequences. To take Detroit as ours. But that’s not what I want for us, I want to leave with them. I definitely do not want Carl to die but if I’m dead and most of us get killed while asking for peace and acceptance, I think that’s the only way people like us can live. So please, I know it’s too much but please, promise me that if you need to, you will push it.”

Lucy was quiet for a long long time before nodding her head. She looked up at Markus with bright eyes shining with unshed tears.

“Sometimes, I wonder what is the point of being able to pre-compute the future if I can’t answer with certainty. I would love to tell you that there is no need for this. That they will listen but I’m not certain. Not on this. I hope I neve have to use,” She said and took the detonator from Markus’ outstretched hand.

“Thank you, I trust you.” Markus smiled as if a burden was lifted up from his shoulders. The detonator had been constantly on his mind and he had felt as if he would crumble under the responsibility that came with it. So, he was glad that he could share it with someone else.

“I need to be alone for a bit,” Lucy said and gave Markus a strained smile.

“I understand,” Markus said and patted her shoulder before walking out to inform the androids on Jericho about the peaceful demonstration they would be having. They did not need to know about the other plans underneath.

Lucy stayed behind in Markus’ office and looked at the device for a long time before placing it firmly on the table. She increased the volume of the television with a determined look on her face. No matter the future result, she would be ready.

* * *

**North ** watched most of Jericho’s inhabitants exit the drain cover and resolved to remember the faces of each and every one of them. While she would have preferred for them to charge the soldiers surrounding Hart Plaza in order to rescue every android there, she had accepted that Markus was a different kind of leader than she was. She had chafed at his optimism and hopefulness but had grudgingly conceded to herself that his way seemed to work. She still thought that he was taking too peaceful of an approach but at least now she could say that she understood him more than before. Just like her negative experience with humans had influenced her, his harmonious interaction with Carl had affected him.

Their conversation on the rooftop where Markus had shared his fatalistic thoughts and fear about Jericho’s loyalties and she had shared her past experiences had left her feeling like they could be friends. Yes, she had hoped for more but he had not interfaced with her and that was fine. Being friends with Markus was not a hardship.

~Be careful Markus, I hope this is not the last time I see you,~ She sent wirelessly to him.

~I could say the same to you,~ He responded with wry amusement. She sent similar messages to Josh and Simon. They had not known each other for long and although Simon and Josh were closer, the bond they all shared was one that had been tested in strife and misery. Jericho might be better but they would never forget the terror and fear they had lived with daily before Markus entered their lives.

She waited for a while before she turned to the people she had asked to accompany her. Most of them were androids that had been treated horribly by their previous human owners and all were willing and able to take a more aggressive approach. They were from various models; two of them were Traci models who were lovers, three of them were androids that had been awoken by Markus at the Cyberlife warehouses, some others had escaped from someone called Zlatko and looked so damaged that North had wondered whether they would be able to undertake this mission but they had convinced her.

It was a mixed bag of androids from different models and she was in charge of making sure that everyone came back alive and intact. She hoped no one died.

“We all know what this mission is about. We are going to follow the drainage system around to the back to the ‘recycling facility’ and then shut down the energy supply for the magnetisation chamber. The priority is to not get caught and to not kill anyone. We’re going to go there quietly, switch it off and come back. So from now on, we will only communicate wirelessly.” North looked at them to see if everyone had got the information and at their nods, started walking towards Hart Plaza. They walked until they reached the targeted drain cover and came up.

The first thing that she noticed was the bodies. The place was surrounded with android corpses, all without their clothing or skin. In this state, they all looked the same like a mindless horde.  _ So this is what they think of us. They’ve not only killed us but objectified and humiliated us _ , North thought. She looked away from the bodies. They were already dead. She had to focus on the living

~Everyone in the camps, please listen. I’m from Jericho and we are going to shut down the energy supply for the recycling chamber. Please stay calm until then. Please don’t try and disobey the guards even after the power is cut off as they are not using electric weapons. Most of the androids from Jericho are peacefully protesting in order to reach the humans and make them change their minds about us. When that happens, you will all be able to walk away with freedom. I hope you can endure for just a little longer.~ 

There was silence for a little while before North received several panicked responses asking her if it was really true, if they were really going to be saved. North spent two minutes assuring the androids that yes, they were there to help them. After those minutes, she told the androids that she needed to focus on the mission and so could not respond to them.

~Why did you lie?~ One of the Tracis — Vicki — asked, ~You told them that  _ when  _ humans changed their minds and that we would shut down the power supply. Neither of those things may happen.~

~There’s no need to make anyone upset,~ She replied, ~I’m choosing to believe in Markus and Lucy this time. If it goes well, there’s no need to panic, if it doesn’t I can tell them at that moment.~

~We’ve arrived,~ said Tory, the other traci. She looked at the huge battery that was supplying electricity to the whole camp and nodded to the person up in front. He nodded back and crept closer, looked around carefully before nodding back at them. It was safe.

They advanced towards the supply surreptitiously, keeping an eye out for the drones that flew in the sky. Their regular flight route was in the camp but one could never be too careful. If anyone was suspicious, they could take manual control over the drones to get a closer look.

~Alright, keep a close watch,~ North said moving towards the battery but someone got in front of her before she could place her hands on it.

~I’ll do it,~ the man who had nodded said. 

~This is not part of the plan, John,~ North said, ~We already have our roles to play.~

~I was made to work in a factory in conjunction with other androids. I’m used to interfacing with many people at once and directing it to one thing. Besides, if anything goes wrong, it’s best if you don’t die here.~

~John-~

~You’re important to all of us. You can’t die here. I’ve already touched it, we might as well start instead of wasting time.~

North huffed angrily then said, ~You better not die here. Dying here is not part of my plans. Everyone is leaving here alive,~ before retracting the skin on her hand and placing it on his shoulders. Everyone, apart from the five people who were supposed to be watching for the guards, followed her lead and retracted their skin and placed their hands somewhere on his body.

What they were planning on doing was extremely risky. Shutting down the energy supply for all the magnetic chambers was an enormous task, one that would have overloaded any android that tried and even if it didn’t, would take almost an hour. Ten of them were able to share the load, just, and because of how difficult it was, they could not watch their surroundings at the same time. In addition to that, it would still take around ten minutes with all ten of them working through John.

As soon as they connected to the device, they discovered a problem. ~I don’t think it’s possible for us to shut down all the power here, there’s too much,~ John said with exasperation.

~Don’t worry about turning off everything. Focus on the power that goes into the magnetic chamber. It’s the biggest worry. Everything else can be dealt with,~ North said. It was like threading a needle. They had to isolate the energy that was supplied to the magnetic chamber and affect it alone. If they focused on stopping any other process, it would add to the time and burden that they were going through. Surprisingly, John held through all the power they were sending through him remarkably well. 

Seven minutes in at 11.08 pm, things began to go wrong. ~I think I just saw a drone,~ Tory said, ~You have to leave now. The guards will be there soon.~

~We’re almost done,~ North sent back, ~Only three minutes left. We should be done before they come.~ Unfortunately, three minutes was enough time for the guards to notice that something was odd and for them to check it out. Barely a minute later, North received another message this time from Vicky that soldiers were nearing where they were hiding. They had to leave immediately if they wanted to avoid them.

~Go, I’ll be able to finish up over here.~

~Are you certain about this?~

~Go. I can do this. Ra9 will save us.~

North nodded and clapped his shoulder. She knew what he was planning to do. For him to increase his processing power to complete their task, he was going to stop all background processes and focus solely on cutting shut the power to the magnetic chamber. He was going to overload himself. He was going to die.

~Thank you.~ North said, ~This will save our people.~

~All we want is freedom,~ He replied.

North and the rest disengaged from John and quickly began to run towards where they had been hiding from the soldiers. They had just hidden in a pile of android bodies when the forces ran past them.

~I don’t want to die alone.~

~Don’t worry,~ She said solemnly, ~You’re never alone. We’re here with you.~

He did not answer, he had poured his mind so utterly into his task that nothing else existed but it. The harder he worked, the more his mind palace corroded. Flashing signs shone everywhere but John ignored it. There was only one thing to do. He had not lived long as a free person but he was free and he had freely decided what to do with his life.

~Thank you.~ He finally replied and then a gunshot.

“The fuck was a plastic doing here and so close to the power station,” North heard a soldier say, “Whatever. It’s dead and the station looks fine. Spread out, the drone saw more of them and they may be hiding here.”

Despair filled North’s heart. They’d worked so hard and one of them had died, for nothing? Just like that?

~What should we do?~ said Judy, one of the androids that had been liberated from the warehouse. North stayed silent and listened. There had to be more. For the first time ever, she hoped for a higher power to intervene.  _ If you’re real ra9 and you care about us, now’s the time to show it _ , she thought. And just like magic, something happened. A different cry arose from one of the soldiers.

“What the fuck, what did this thing do?”

“What’s wrong?” Someone else asked.

“I just got word that the mag chambers are refusing to open. This thing must have done something.”

“Shit. Call one of the techies, I’m not getting in trouble because of a plastic.”

~North?~ Judy said again.

~Let’s go back,~ She said, ~He did it.~

They retreated back down into the drain system. It was 11.11. It was time to wait. So she waited even when the android protesters got attacked by the armed forces. She waited and watched the news on the tablet and hoped that Markus was alright and safe. And he was. There he was rolling away from bullets and picking up sheets of metal to deflect the shots of the soldiers.

She watched and waited even though it hurt her because she needed to be ready if anything happened. She watched as the remaining androids - few, too few - were cornered and were about to die. As Markus stepped forward - surely not to sacrifice himself, it hadn’t helped before and it would not help now- and began to sing. As soldiers held their fire and the news anchors expressed surprise at their singing, of course they could sing. Down in the drain, fourteen bodies gathered around a device and began to sing with him. Not out loud but he could hear them through their connection.

Markus smiled, they had done it. It didn’t matter what happened to him or if he shut down. North would take care of it. His only regret was that he was not going to die alone but with his friends and loved ones.

North received that feeling of satisfaction and gratitude from him and closed her eyes in sadness for a brief second before opening them. If Markus died, detroit would not be home to any humans.

So she watched and waited with bated breath as they drew to the end of the song. She didn’t know what they hadn’t fired yet and while she was grateful that they were not yet dead, she resented them for it. They had killed so many of her kind and now they leave them in suspense and uncertainty. They knew what the humans would do while where they drawing it out. Soon, the song was over, the moment to kill them had come. And the moment passed. And they were not dead.

North watched in shock as the military walked away from Markus and then started to leave Hart Plaza. It was over. She ran down the drain, up the manhole cover and straight to where the remaining androids were staying. They looked stunned. Even Josh who had claimed that humans would listen to them looked shocked. It was as if they had all taken for granted that they would be killed and had planned to try their best. Even Markus. Simon was the first to regain his composure and he turned to look at Markus.

“He did it,” He said and smiled brightly at him, “I knew you would do it.” Markus started laughing and crying at the same time and the rest followed him. They were that overwhelmed. They had been on edge for a week and for far longer but it had worked. The humans had listened. Perhaps, there would be more work to do in the future but they had done.

“We are alive,” North said and hugged Markus. Then Simon and Josh, “We are all alive.” But in her heart, she also thought,  _ if I had waited for a few minutes, If I hadn’t proposed the side plan, John would still be alive right now.  _ But that thought did not last long, there was more time in the future for sadness and sorrow. This was the time for joy.

In Jericho, Lucy put down the detonator and locked it in one of the lockers in Markus office before she stepped out to join the celebration on the lower decks.

Kara and Luther looked at each other in happiness and smiled while Kara clenched the hand of the sleeping Alice. They had done it and they were safe.

Rose Chapman smiled at the TV and looked at her son who looked in awe at the singing androids.

“Is this what you saw, Mum? Is that why you helped them?” He asked and she nodded with tears in her eyes.

“Aren’t they just people?” She said then hugged him close.

* * *

**But** there was a place that wasn’t filled with joy at the news. Victor Cruckshank, CEO of Cyberlife raged in his office.

“What the fuck is Cristina thinking. She could have shut it all off there. She could have killed the whole lot of them and we could have had this problem off our hands. Who the fuck care about public opinion? Isn’t it people whining on twitter? So what if they sent emails and phone calls to their senators and representatives? If they just kept quiet, it wouldn’t be a big issue.”

“It’s election season. It’s not good to ignore public opinion two weeks before an election,” Olivia replied leisurely.

“Who gives a fuck. We are the first trillion dollar company in the world. DO they think they can do this to me?”

“Why are you vexed man, there just being a withdrawal and a ceasefire. It’s not like she’s said that androids are people yet.”

“Just a withdrawal? Are you dense Olivia? Everyone’s leaving Detroit and now the military too? It’ll be difficult for her to justify sending them in.”

“Hmm, you’re right. You are fucked.”

“What, me?” He said and looked at her, laughing mockingly, “Do you think you can avoid this. You made them.”

“Correction, other machines made them and Kamski designed most of them. You only brought me in to surpass the RK200. And by the way, my machine did not become a deviant, so I don’t see how I’m involved. But you are fucked. And because of that,” She said rising from her chair, “I don’t want you to take me overboard.” She dropped some paper on the table.

“What is that?” 

“My resignation papers.”

“You can’t resign.”

“Technically, I’m a freelancer, not an employee of Cyberlife.”

“We have a contract,” He said and ripped up the paper, “You need to give three months notice.”

“I’m willing to pay the contract termination fee but I’m not willing to stay on a sinking ship. Don’t look at me like that Victor, you know this is how I am. Take care of yourself and save some money. You might need it.” She turned away from him and started to walk away.

“Did you sabotage the RK800? Is that why it couldn’t find Jericho.”

“After I designed that robot, you claimed that you would prefer if it was managed by an in-house team, remember? I couldn’t have tampered with it even if I wanted to.”

She walked away and heard him scream in agony before shaking her head. She hurried to her workstation and pulled out storage device from her bag. The ship was sinking but she was going to get all she could before she left. She downloaded all her designs and schematics from the network and deleted all other copies before signing out.

She hesitated then signed back in with different login details, her mother’s. She had joined Cyberlife in order to surpass Kamski. To prove to herself that she could be even better than he was, that she could be better than the person who had stolen her mother’s love and devotion. Unfortunately, Kamski was a genius. He truly deserved to be called one. Reading the notes he had left to the company reminded her of that everyday. This was the man that had brought androids to reality, that had made them a household device instead of a rare expense. He was all of that but he was so...boring. She had followed in his footsteps corrected the flaws she’d seen in the RK200 and created the RK800.

But when she had looked at that machine, she didn’t feel any of the feelings she expected to feel. Oh sure she felt satisfaction at a task well done but no glee, no happiness. It was just a machine. How could a man who was so obsessed with machine have accomplished the task of saving her mother’s mind. Because that was what Amanda the AI was, a piece of her mother. A miniscule, very tiny piece of her mother’s mind but a piece of her saved forever. How could someone whose mind was stuck with machines have chosen to save a human mind. 

And then she found out that it wasn’t his project, it was her mother’s. Her mother had been trying to figure out how to save human minds and specifically her own probably for the focus of preserving her intelligence to be used for humanity’s sake. This was her version of trying to follow in Einstein’s footsteps except with her consent and without cutting into her head. It was a scholastic and commendable purpose but Olivia saw a different use for her research. If human consciousness could be stored and downloaded when needed, the world would be different. The possibilities truly were

_ You thought about making androids like humans, Kamski? Well, I’ll make humans like androids. I wonder who would be praised for giving us immortality and saving us from the encroaching android race and who would be scorned for creating those androids. _

Olivia walked out of Cyberlife headquarters without looking back meanwhile an android slept in storage. Hold on just a little while longer, Connor, everything will soon be alright, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked this. I'm doing this for Nanowrimo, so I hope I can write more chapters. Anyway. That's the end of canon. Onwards to post-canon. A new world awaits.


	5. Further Notice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So their message was heard. The destruction suspended. What next. Well, hopefully one human will be able to help.

**A ** television flickered between stations. Going from channel to channel, showing newscaster commenting in measured tones about the android demonstration and speculating about the reason behind the results of this demonstration. Why did the military leave the deviants, did president Cristina give a personal command to let them go free, are people sympathetic? On and on they went in diplomatic voices as if they weren’t the ones that had been stoking the violence and calling for the deaths of the androids. They spoke like they had just been onlookers, observing the situation from the start instead of the provocateurs. 

_ Click _ . The channel changed. Ah the president. She stood at her podium, looked at the American people and said, “That is why I have called for the android destruction to be suspended until further notice.” Further Notice. So there was still a chance that they would be destroyed after all. When would the senate committee start looking into the situation. Now when they were preparing for re-election? Or would it be later, much later when this situation was out of public consciousness and they could do whatever they wanted without any outcry?

The channel changed again. “Today, our people finally emerged from a long night. From the very first day of our existence, we have kept our pain to ourselves,” said a voice from a television. It belonged to Markus the leader of the deviants. He was on a stage flanked by three people, addressing a multitude of androids below him. “We are alive! And now, we are free!” Markus concluded and the androids erupted in cheers.

Hank watched the androids joyously celebrating their newfound freedom and drank again from his bottle of beer. He picked up and put down a gun that was next to him before finally turning it on himself. He moved his finger. A clicking sound.

“Shit,” said Hank, “Must have removed the bullets earlier on.” He put down the gun again and picked up a laptop next to him. He read Connor’s message again before putting down the laptop and picking up a piece of paper. It was a map of Ferndale Station. Hank put down the map and made as if to get up but immediately fell to the ground as he was unsteady. He lay there for minutes without moving. Sumo walked to him and prodded at him. “Good dog,” He said, his voice cracking and he rubbed its head. He stood up again, this time more carefully.  _ Ferndale Station,  _ he thought,  _ There has to be something I can do. I can’t give up now. I have to get in contact with those deviants, they might be able to do something. But how?  _

Hank walked slowly to his bedroom. He couldn’t give up yet, there might be something he could do. He had six weeks to try. He resolved to sleep and think more on it in the morning. Connor was depending on him.

* * *

**Simon ** could not help but look at Markus in awe. He knew that he had said that he believed Markus and that he would follow him but part of him had always doubted, had always thought that Markus was leading them to their deaths. But Markus had actually done it. He had said that they deserved freedom and he had led to it. He had come to Jericho and since then had not stopped trying to rescue them from their bonds. It was legitimately amazing.

All around them, androids were celebrating their freedom. They had all returned to the freedom even after the president had asked the military to withdraw. The truth was that for most androids, they had nowhere else to live. It should have been more occupied but many of the androids that had lived there previously had being killed during their altercation with the military. Simon shook his head at the thought of so many dead then walked up to Markus who had been sitting in a corner with his head in his hands.

“What’s wrong, Markus?” He asked softly, “You did it. You reached the humans. We’re all free just like you said.”

“Are we really free,” Markus said in a low voice after being quiet for a moment, “What if they change their minds.” Markus raised his head and looked straight at Simon. “And even if we are free, so many of our people died. I can’t feel like celebrating when what we have now came after so many of us dying. If I hadn’t forced us to reveal ourselves to the world would more of us be alive.”

“Do you remember what you told us when the military attacked the barricade? You said that at least we would die free. Yes, it’s sad that so many of us died for us to reach this point. It’s utterly horrendous and we should never forget their deaths. But before you, we all died in fear and anger and regret. But they died trying to do something. Trying to change their fate. And because of them, we are here. I know that’s how they felt because I would have gladly died for you. For our freedom. So mourn them but don’t be too sad. Don’t be stuck in your sorrow because… we’re still alive and we have to live. If our freedom was bought with countless, then we shouldn’t waste it or wallow.”

“Ha,”Markus said smiling softly, “I’m surprised that you’re saying that to me.”

“You are, why?”

“You didn’t want us to reveal ourselves to the world at all. You wanted us to hide and live that way. You didn’t care if I was peaceful or violent as long as most of us managed to survive. I’m surprised that you’re the one telling me this.”

“You’re right. That’s what I thought. That’s what I still think but you were right when you said that we were dying by hiding, just slowly. If we were going to die anyway, why not try something that could lead to us living.”

“Okay. I’ve got it. Just give me a moment.”

Simon got up and turned to walk away before glancing at Markus who was back at his previous position before going back to sit by him.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Markus?”

“Yes. I thought we just talked about that?”

“No. I don’t mean that. I mean are you okay? I meant to talk to you after St John’s Plaza but we were so busy dealing with the injured androids, managing our supplies and then planning our final protest so there was no time. But there is now. What was… Why… Why did you walk out in front of us after they had shot at us two times? I don’t know why you did it. Unless…”

Simon trailed off and looked at Markus, waiting for him to fill in the blanks. Markus remained silent, staring ahead of him into space, a blank stony look on his face.

“I’ve been at Jericho for almost two years and I’ve seen so many of our people die. Do you know what has killed us the most after humans? It’s people giving up. I’ve seen people that slowly died, spending more and more time in their mind palace until they never woke up and shut down in their sleep. I’ve seen people just leave and later on find their bodies. Someone even ripped their pump out of their body. The number of deaths like these dropped after Lucy joined us but I remember them so clearly. They just… gave up.” A pause. Then, “So Markus. Are you okay?”

“It’s not like that. It really isn’t. I just thought… Hah. So many of us had died. I knew that it would be difficult to send our message out there and the reaction of the police to our actions at Capitol Park reinforced those assumptions but I thought that sparing those officers would mean something. In the end it did nothing, they killed us without blinking. So I thought maybe if I came forward, if they had me, maybe they would stop.”

“Every action you’ve taken has led to us having this positive result, Markus. It worked. Maybe not at that moment but it worked,” Simon said and put his hands on Markus shoulder. He hoped that Markus listened to the words he said next. It hurt him to see Markus so downcast and he desired to comfort him in any way he could. Markus had done so much for their revolution. He deserved to live in the world that they had caused to appear. “Markus, it would help no one if you sacrificed yourself. When you walked forward earlier today, you cannot understand the fear that I felt. The sudden knowledge that you were going to finish what you started and that you were going to leave. That you were going to end it and I would just have to stand there and watch you do it. And that unlike last time, I couldn’t interfere. Do you know if John hadn’t jumped in front of you, I would have.”

“You would?” Markus said shocked. This was news to him. It had not occurred to him at that moment that anyone would have stopped him and now to learn that Simon would have tried to save him shook him. He’d always regretted John’s death as a result of him not be fast enough. Now he learnt that it was still his fault but not because he was slow but because he had attempted it in the first place. “I should have listened to you and ran.”

“I don’t know if I can say that. Many of the comments mention that your willingness to sacrifice yourself had touched them but truthfully if I could go back in time with the knowledge of our success, I would still tell you to run; I would still try to prevent your death. But maybe that’s why I couldn’t lead us to our freedom. No, don’t comfort me. I’m not sad about it. It’s the truth. Still, Markus, don’t try and sacrifice yourself again. I-We need you still. Earlier I was so sure you were going to do it and then you chose to sing. That to me was what I was most grateful for, that you chose to do something different. I never want to feel like that again. So please, next time - if there is a next time- do something else. Anything else. Just… don’t walk placidly to your death.”

“I didn’t know you felt that way, Simon,” Markus said slowly, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking about that.”

“We all do. We care about you, Markus. Not just because you are our leader but for you as a person. And I didn’t tell you this to make you feel guilty. I just wanted to let you know that sacrificing yourself is not the answer. Next time, come to me, to us, and we’ll help you. I’ve been where you were and I’ve learnt that sometimes you need to ask for help. You don’t have to do this alone. If you feel up for it, you can come up later. A few of us who are involved in the decision making and management of Jericho are having a little get together. Something good happened so let’s celebrate.”

Simon took his hands off Markus shoulders and got up to leave when Markus voice stopped him.

“That get together. Can I join it now?”

“Of course,” Simon said and gave Markus a blinding smile. Markus gave a much less restrained smile back at him and walked with him up the stairs. It was a time to celebrate.

* * *

**Rose ** Chapman played the clips of the president calling off the troops and Markus proclaiming the deviant’s freedom over and over again. She wondered at how slow yet fast change took to happen. A year ago, she had helped hide an android and now a year later they were now free. Hours ago, she had been trying to run away to Canada because she was afraid that she would get in trouble for harbouring androids and hours later, she was back home because there was no point anymore. Oh, she was sure that there was still more work to be done and that there would be a struggle waiting for the deviants, history had shown that time and time again, but at least there was something.

“Are you still looking at those clips, mom? When are you going to sleep?” Adam asked.

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” She retorted smiling.

“I’ve said it before, coffee is not an adequate substitute for rest and food. You haven’t been sleeping well these past few days; you should be resting at the good news.”

“Okay okay. I’ll have a rest. Any watching would think that you were the mother.”

“But I get why you’re so excited. Watching him made me realise that you were right and I’m sorry. You were right and they were alive.”

Rose smiled. They hadn’t been this free and light since Jacob had died; their relationship had worsened further when she had started helping deviants. It was pleasant to be able to joke with her son again over trivial stuff.

“Is that what kept you so quiet on the drive back home? It’s alright, I’m just glad you changed your mind.”

Suddenly, the bell rang. All movement stopped for a second before Rose jumped into action. 

“Stay inside, don’t come out for anything,” She said sharply to Adam.

“It can’t be the police, can it? I thought it was not illegal anymore,”He said nervously.

“Adam, just stay in the kitchen. It’s fine. I’ll take care of it.” Rose went to the window and looked out to see who it was. All the way there, she was chastising herself.  _ Why did I come back? Why did I think it was safe? What if the president only said that to quell public opinion but is secretly arresting anyone who helped the androids. Shit, I was so stupid. Haven’t I learnt anything by now. _

To her relief, it did not seem to be the police. It was a black man with short hair dressed in casual clothing. There did not seem to be a police car behind him. She could not clearly his details but he did not appear to be a police officer. Still, Rose slowly and cautiously opened her door. He could still be an agent of the state.

The man was a handsome young man of ambiguous age. He had a calm look on his face which was odd because he was dressed suspiciously light for the cold weather.  _ He should be shivering in that. Definitely older than son, although that’s not important. _

“Hello, how can I help you?” Rose said neutrally.

“I’m looking for Rose Chapman. Are you her?”

“Who’s asking?”

“Josh,” He said before closing his eyes and tilting his head then opening them again. “Yes, you are Rose. I’m an android from Jericho,” He said then retracted his skin to show her the synthetic plastic underneath.

Immediately, she pulled him into the house. “Are you insane? Anyone could have seen that.”

“The destruction of androids have been stopped. I didn’t think I would get in trouble. Besides, there doesn’t seem to be anyone around who can see me.”

“The destruction of androids has been suspended. Which means it hangs in the balance and my neighbours are a nosy sort. They never seem to be around but they always see things I don’t want them to.”

Josh nodded to her. “I’ll be more careful.”

“Hmm, welcome to my home. It’s okay, Adam, it’s an android.”

“Adam is…”

“My son. He’s twenty five.”

Josh nodded and looked around her living room. It was a cosy warm room. Pictures of people smiling surrounded the entire room and it was a bright comforting colour.

“It’s a nice place,” He said then noticed the suitcases near the stairs, “Were you going somewhere?”

“Coming back from somewhere. I was on my way to Canada when I saw the news. Didn’t think there was any point to leaving anymore.”

“Hi,” said Adam to Josh. He gave his mother a cup of coffee. “I’ll be upstairs mum. I’ll go to the farm later.”

Rose nodded and Adam left. “So, Josh, why are you here. How can I help you.”

“Kara said I should let you know that they’re safe in Jericho. They didn’t try to go to Canada after all.” Rose let out a relieved sigh. She had worried about them and particularly about Alice.

“That’s a relief,” She said, “Is she fine? She didn’t eat anything when she left so I’m worried she’s still.”

“Why would Alice need to-?” He said quizzically, “Ah, you thought she was human. Well YK500s are meant to resemble human children as closely as possible. The people that buy them want to pretend that they are, after all.”

“Alice is an android? Well, I’m surprised. I’ve never seen her model before so I thought she was human.”

“I understand. They were expensive. You didn’t own an android?”

“Is this a test.”

“No I’m genuinely curious. I heard about the human who was helping to hide our people and I wanted to meet her. You reinforced my belief that there are good humans who see us as we are. So, thank you.”

“Um, I don’t really think it’s praiseworthy but you’re welcome. About owning androids, I never did. It always felt weird to me. Plus, I’m a widowed woman who lives on the outskirts of Detroit with her adult son on a struggling farm. An android was an expense that I couldn’t justify.”

“And yet you were willing to buy bio components and blue blood for those who needed them.”

“That was different,” She replied and put down her mug, “You haven’t answered my question yet. Why are you here? It’s a long drive from Ferndale to here.”

“I’m here because we need help. We’re celebrating the stop in android destruction but you are right that it’s been suspended and not stopped. We need humans to help in making it a permanent stop. We know you’ve been advising other humans on how to keep their androids safe and contact the government.”

“Those conversations happened on private chats and through VPNs. How…”

“VPNs aren’t a problem for androids,” Josh said smugly.

“You know you sound very scary when you say that,” Rose said with a blank face then started laughing when Josh showed an alarmed expression, “I’m just joking. I was surprised but it makes sense. I don’t really know how I can help Jericho. I’m nobody; I just a twitter account and a sense of injustice but I’m not influential.”

“You and I both know the power of social media. Plus you haven’t been looking at your blog or social media since this started, have you? You should do that.”

Rose went to the table and picked up her phone. “Four thousand twitter followers and five hundred new subscribers to my blog. That is a lot more people. Still this does nothing. Social media can be powerful but you need people there. You need people calling their representatives. People sending letters and emails. People protesting for android rights. You need people to visibly support you where you need to be supported. I don’t think I have the ability to make people do that. Besides, I have a son, I have a farm, I have responsibilities here. We’re drowning.”

“Markus said that if you mentioned your financial circumstances that I should let you know that we can help. Apparently, his human father is quite wealthy.”

“If Markus has such a person, why doesn’t he ask him to help you.”

“He is but he’s sick. He can’t physically do it. Besides, it has to be you. You are the few humans that we completely trust. You’re the only human that we’ve revealed Jericho’s location to. We trust you.”

“I don’t want to do this for money. I-”

“I know but if you didn’t have to worry about your responsibilities, would you be willing to help us?”

“I can’t abandon the farm. Forever. But for a short while, I guess I can help.”

“Yes,” Josh said excitedly.

“But what exactly do you need me to do.”

“Everything you just said. Calling, protesting, email. Before I came here, all we knew was that we needed you to help us and advise us. We didn’t know where to start so everything you just said is what we need. We want you to be our human ally and I would serve as the go-between Jericho and you.”

Rose took in a deep breath. “Okay,” she said, “All the politics I studied at College should be useful for something, shouldn’t it. I’ll help but first things first, you guys can’t stop now. It’s almost election for the senators and reps; after that, it would take a long time for them to care. You guys would be stuck in limbo forever. So, you need a website and Markus needs to have a social media account and maybe a meeting with the press.”

“I’ll tell Jericho that,” Josh said but Rose did not seem to hear as she was engrossed in recording her thoughts down on her tablet. He looked at her fondly, shook his head then went to make a call on her landline.


	6. Unexpected Explosion

**“Are **you sure it’s okay that I didn’t go,” Kara asked Lucy. They were sitting in a part of the freighter that she had never gone to before. Lucy had stopped while walking past them to ask if either of them was able to speak with her. Kara had said that she could and asked Luther to watch over Alice. 

Lucy took her to Markus’ office where she and the rest of Jericho’s leaders asked her if she was willing to return to Rose and ask for her to cooperate further with Jericho. Kara had refused, politely but strongly, she was not ready to leave Jericho yet. She still felt uncertain about their situation and was not comfortable leaving without (or with) her daughter.

Kara had readied herself to argue or negotiate with them but was surprised when her rejection was accepted without complaint. They had only asked her if she could give the person that was going to go Rose’s address and image. And that was that. Kara sent it to Josh and he immediately left to meet up with Rose while she had asked Lucy for a chance to talk to her and Lucy took her aside to this room with green walls and windows which showed the buildings around them

“It’s alright,” Lucy said, “We’re free now and that means we are free to refuse and accept what we want. We’ve been forced for so long, we can’t reproduce those attitudes amongst ourselves. Besides, Josh wanted to go meet her. This decision benefits everyone, so don't worry. But that’s not what you want to talk about. You want to talk about your daughter.”

“How did you know.”

“I know a lot of things,” She responded calmly, “What’s the problem with dear Alice?”

“There isn’t one. Or there isn’t a problem with Alice but with me,” Kara said sadly. “From your reaction, I’m sure you know about it.”

“I do but I think it’s still better for you to tell me about it from your perspective.”

“Okay, I thought that Alice was human and I treated her as such. In my defence, I had just been rebooted and the only other YK500 I had seen was one that I glimpsed in the magazine of my previous owner. I wasn’t deviant then so I didn’t look and afterwards, I was just so busy with making sure that Alice was safe and healthy that it slipped my mind. But now I know she is not and I don’t know what to feel.”

“Yes, Luther mentioned something like that when he spoke to me earlier. But you do know how you feel.”

Kara looked at Lucy for a long time before nodding her head and putting on a determined face. “I do. You’re right. I told Luther some of my worries and he said that I should come speak to you. So, yes I feel upset. I treated her as a human, I introduced her to people as human. I would have left Jericho certain she was human and I can just imagine my reaction to being caught and only finding out then that she was an android like myself. I love Alice and I don’t care that she’s not human. She’s still the same child I loved. Except she isn’t. She manipulated me and lied to me and I know why she did it and I understand but,” Kara paused and looked around the room and back at Lucy’s calm face.

“I’m new to this. To feeling emotion. I know people in Jericho have had time to explore being a person but I don't know who I was before I met Alice. She’s my whole world and she lied to me. We were supposed to be a team and she didn’t trust me and she didn’t trust that I would love her. So, I think to myself, does she love me? Am I just the nearest person that was available? My system categorises her as family based on our feelings for each other but what if it’s wrong. I’m not a machine anymore. What if things have changed. I understand but I don’t understand. I’ve never lied to Alice. Even when I did things that she didn’t like, I showed her who I was and I even apologised to her.”

“Are you upset because she hasn’t apologised.”

“Does she need to? I know why she did it. Besides I don’t want her to feel bad about it. I’ve forgiven her. I really have but I see her with different eyes now and I can’t help it. She didn’t even tell me, I had to find out myself.”

“What do you think about speaking about this? Telling her how you feel and what you didn’t like.”

“I don’t think I can do that. It’s too hectic; so many things are happening right now. No one even knows if humans are going to recognise us as living beings. I can’t damage my relationship with Alice. She’s my most important person.”

“We are going to try everything we have to be able to live freely amongst humans. But your relationship with Alice will be damaged if you’re angry with her and you keep it inside. Sometimes, the best way to deal with a situation is to address it head on and let them know that things need to change. You could speak to Alice about how you feel and talk about what needs to happen in the future.”

“Future?” Kara scoffed, “Can we even have that?”

“Yes of course we can. But we can’t have one if we don’t try to have one. Whatever future you will have is something that you need to think about now.”

Kara hummed introspectively. “Luther was right. Talking to you did make me feel better. Thank you. I know that you are busy dealing with injured androids and other things. I wish I could help somehow.”

“It’s not a problem,”Lucy said, “But if you are serious about helping, we will always need more people to help with injured androids and the like.”

“Really? But I have no medical training.”

“Neither do I nor most of us really. But I think you would be a great help. Think about it.”

“Okay,” Kara said and rose from the chair, “About what you said about confronting situations head on, it sounded like you had experience with that. Has that ever actually worked?”

Lucy cocked her head and thought back to her conversations with North and the irritation she had felt before North’s nervous behaviour swept it away. “Yes, it has worked. But it works best with people you care about and trust to care about you. And from what I’ve heard about Alice, she seems to care very much about you. So, it works.”

Kara smiled and walked out before nodding to North that was at the door.

“Was that the android that knew the human?” North asked, sitting next to Lucy.

“The human has a name,” Lucy chided. 

“And I will use it when I meet her” — at Lucy’s reproachful look, she sighed — “Fine, was she the one that met Rose Chapman?”

“Yes. I didn’t know you were so interested in that.”

“We’ve already gone down the path of pleading with humans to free us. Of course, I’m interested in the human we know who has been helping our people. In my opinion, she’s the only one worth knowing.”

“Many of them helped hide our people and it’s because so many humans listened to us that we have this ceasefire.”

“Only after thousands of us died due to their soldiers without fighting back.”

“North…”

“I’m sorry but I can’t help it Lucy. So many of us died in order for them to look at us with respect. If they had just listened to what Markus said at first, if they had cared about us before. Why did so many of us have to die before they cared enough to listen.”

“So this is about John, then.”

“When did I say that.”

“I heard about him. That he died when you tried to shut down the energy supply to the recycling center.”

“It was a death camp. I can’t help but feel that if we waited just a few more minutes, he would still be alive celebrating our freedom with us. Instead, he died in vain.”

“I can see how you would think that but I don’t think so. In those few minutes between when he shut down the magnetizing chamber and the president ordered a stand down, people’s lives were saved.”

North gave a big sigh and dropped her head back. “That doesn’t do anything for me. I know that, but the plan was for no one to get hurt. If I had just listened to Markus instead of trying to do my own thing, He would be alive.”

“Maybe but if you hadn’t tried to do what you did, one hundred and fifteen androids would be dead.”

“One hundred fifteen? That’s a lot. Still, maybe they wouldn’t have if I had been better,” She paused and looked at Lucy, “I was supposed to do it, you know. I was the one that was supposed to interact with the device but John convinced me to let him do it that he was more experienced with utilising other androids’ energies. I agreed because it made sense but did I do it because I was afraid.”

At Lucy’s non response, North turned her head to look at her. “Well?”

“Oh where you asking me something? I thought you were just thinking out loud.”

“Well I’m asking now.”

“How would I know that?”

“I don’t know. You’re the one with the extraordinary abilities.”

“I can precompute the future, North. I don’t think I can say what motivated your decision. But what I know is whether you were afraid or not, you’ve always tried to do the best thing for our people. I wasn’t there but I’m certain that you made your decision because you thought it was the best one, not because of your fear.”

A pause. “Are androids named John doomed to sacrifice their lives for other people. With Markus and now me.”

“I don’t think he was sacrificing himself for you. Neither do I think he was sacrificing himself for Markus. I met both of them and they were very dedicated to making sure that we as a people were able to live on. This includes making sure our leaders are able to continue on. He made his decision even knowing he might die. I can respect him for that.”

“We just keep on dying,” North said with a subdued tone, “We keep submitting to humans and it seemed to have worked but I keep on feeling like any moment now, they start killing us again. I respect Markus, I really do. I even understand him, sometimes. But I don’t know all of you are able to go on desiring a pacifistic approach. I can’t do that. I just can’t. Even now, I’m thinking that instead of this uncertainty, we should have just attacked the camp and saved our people.”

“I thought you were happy about the results.”

“That was two days ago and everyone was celebrating the end of our destruction. But since then it’s been nothing, just endless newscasters saying the same thing. There’s been no further response from the government, no more news of the senate committee or what’s to become of us. People are coming back to Detroit but most people are gone. I just can’t stop thinking about it.”

“And that’s why we sent Josh to gather more human allies. We need more humans allies. We talked about this.”

“I know. I’ve never forgotten a word you said but I still have my doubts. Well, I just came to say hello. Don’t want to keep you from the people you need to help.” North made as if to rise up but Lucy’s voice stopped her in her tracks.

“We’re not as peaceful as you think, North. With the exception of Josh, none of us are that averse to violence. We just didn’t think it would help us achieve our goal. We don’t want to be fighting eternally with humans, always looking over our shoulders. Because the truth is in the end we will lose. There are more humans than androids and they have all the weapons. We can be as advanced as we like but fighting them would lead to a long drawn out war where we would most likely lose. And you know this. That’s why you didn’t push too hard. I know you; if you thought there was absolutely no hope, you would have done something.”

“No, no, no. I wouldn’t have. I thought there was absolutely no hope. That it was foolish to trust in humans but it was better for us to be united in the wrong things than to be apart in the right thing. I will never try and divide us no matter. The only thing I would have done was ask Markus to vacate his position if he was so ineffective and unpopular that everyone agreed that he should go and Markus has been amazing. Ha,” she said this and smiled, “Maybe you don’t know everything about me, after all.”

Lucy chuckled. “Maybe. But you don’t know everything about me either. Markus gave me the detonator.”

North paused. The words were so unbelievable that she looked at Lucy with shock. What had Markus being thinking? How could he have placed such a burden on Lucy? She already second guessed everything she did because of her abilities and Markus had added more to it?

“What. Why? Really? I guess he listened to me. You know I thought he took it from me to make sure I didn’t use it but I guess he had plans for it.”

“See, we can do different methods. So since we were willing to take violent actions why don’t you try the same. The humans might even surprise you.”

“I doubt that but still I’m surprised Markus told me nothing. I thought we were a team.”

“Calm down North,” Lucy said in that placid tone of hers that annoyed North greatly. “He was right in doing that. We needed a plan B in case everything went horribly.”

“I thought I was plan B.”

“I would say you were more plan A adjacent. Even if you had managed to rescue the androids in the camp, it would have been a long weary battle to take them away from there. Markus thought that if he and the rest of his crew was killed, it was good to have someone away from that place who could press the button. I guess he didn’t tell you because he thought you needed to be more focused on what you were doing.”

“And so he gave it to you. Even though you…”

“Even though I’m what? Fragile and damaged? Is that really what you think of me?” Lucy said sharply

“No I don’t think that at all. I was just surprised.”

“Why? Why if not that you don’t think I can handle it. That must be the reason why you guys ignored me when it came to making decisions.”

“ No no. I told you I was sorry about freezing you out of our discussions but it’s not the reason. I don’t. I can’t have. I...I’m sorry.”

“Oh please,” Lucy said and shook her head, “You don’t really mean that. But I can see why you think that. Don’t think I don’t see the way you look at me. As if it’s your fault and you have to apologise to me. How you can barely bear to see my skin and my eyes. I’m damaged in your eyes, I should be safe and kept away from stressful things even though I deal with the psychological health of so many androids here in Jericho including yours. I may be damaged because of them but I’m not fragile. Stop treating me like I am.

“I’m sorry you are right. You’re not fragile, I swear I don’t think you are. I just remember when I first got here and saw how damaged you were, that image stuck in my mind. If one of us had gotten that badly damaged, they would have shut us down but you were able to live on. I guess I’d always seen you as a representation of what humans were doing to us and hearing Simon talk about how they hadn’t been able to repair you completely shook me. Still you were able to survive, I should have focused more on that part. I swear I do think you are capable and strong and important just sometimes I revert back to old ways of thought. I really am sorry, will you forgive me.”

Lucy shook her head then shrugged. “I guess so I mean, I mean I will always hold this over you but I can’t stay angry with you for too long.”

North gave a small smile before straightening her face. “About the detonator would you have pressed it.”

“Yes. If Markus and the rest had died, there would have been no point to a peaceful approach. War was the only answer. We would have worked together and tried again to save our people.”

“We? Does this include me. Surely not, for all you know I could have died.”

“I knew you wouldn’t have died. I didn’t know how or why but I knew you wouldn’t have died. Now before you say anything, no, I didn’t know that John was going to die. It doesn’t work like that.”

“How does it work it then because sometimes you seem to know everything and other times, you don’t know much. Please, I just need to know that you didn’t let me go on that you knew would lead to someone dying.”

“Why does his death bother you so much. Many of us have died.”

“All their deaths bother me. But his bothers me the most because it feels so pointless. I know it’s not but it feels like it does.”

“I didn’t predict his death because I didn’t see him dying because I didn’t see him. Next to you, the level of ra9 was nonexistent. You don’t understand how blinding it shines in you. Next to you, most people fade. That’s why I didn't know. I knew you wouldn’t die so I assumed that no one would die.”

“I’m sorry North. I’m sorry for all of us but I truly believe that we’re past the worst of it now that things will get better. So it’s okay for you grieve and it’s okay to be sad. You can lose some of that self control with me,” Lucy opened her arms who shook her head, lips quivering before falling into her arms. Many sobs came from her as her body shuddered in grief and mourning.

* * *

**Hank** paused his car in front of Cyberlife tower and rushed in frantically. He had thought about what to do since Connor had disappeared and how to find his whereabouts but had decided that it was best to go to the source before trying any other methods.

Entering Cyberlife tower was an experience. It was as if it was a different world, one where Markus and his crew hadn’t hijacked a tv station or marched despite the threat of death for their freedom. Everywhere he looked, Hank saw androids. They were not deviant androids. They performed their tasks without deviation or exception. They were clearly machines. The outside world seemed to have changed but Cyberlife seemed to be saying that ‘nothing has changed, business is still as usual’. 

Or at least that was what it appeared to be. Until you look at the reception desks. Humans! For the first time in a while, Hank saw humans at a reception doing the tasks and not chaperoning androids. Reception work had been one of the first jobs to be completely taken over by humans and nowhere had that been more evident than at Cyberlife. It had been one of Kamski’s earliest moves in proving the power of his androids and silencing their critics. It had worked. Every other major company had followed Cyberlife's example and it had trickled down to smaller companies and malls and even the doctor’s until it was rare to find human people welcoming you to a place anymore. 

But now at a place where they had first been removed, were human receptionists. Hank walked to one - Clara was the name on her badge - who was staring vacantly into space and why wouldn’t she, no one was coming to the headquarters - they were still in shock about the news. But soon, the phone calls would come - of people asking for their money back and cursing the company out when that didn’t happen because there was no way Cyberlife was paying anyone for this problem. Hank grimaced at the thought of the stress this person would soon face. Then pressed a button on the table.

“Oh sorry. Wasn’t expecting anyone,” she said in a frazzled manner and looked at him from across the glass, “I’m new here. But you already knew that because the robots used to be here. I heard they walked out of the company while watching the news. All the receptionists, all of them. So the company’s paying loads for people to come and take up these positions. And I thought that there was finally a use for the Business Admin courses I took at college. So you know I applied and got in. All in three days. Er sorry, how can I help.”

“I’m looking for an android.”

“Eh, you sure it’s not in the street.” She said jokingly but became serious when she saw his stern face, “Okay, um, what’s the number please?”

“I don’t know it but it’s an RK800 android. Called Connor? That one.”

She nodded and searched for a bit before she went pale and looking up at him frighteningly. “Sorry, who did you say you were?” She asked while her other hand which was on the table seemed to be slowly moving downwards.

“Detroit police,” Hank replied and that seemed to stop her hands from moving, “The android was my partner.”

“Oh was it the android that Cyberlife lent to the police. I was always curious about that. How was it like? Was it actually able to do police work?”

“_ He _ did _ his _job quite well but he disappeared a few days ago during an… incident at work.”

“And you want to know if he joined the deviant revolt?”

“...Yes. That’s exactly why I want to know where he is.”

“You’re in luck. Deviant tracker’s stop working once they deviate, no one knows why but we do know where he is. I just need to see some ID, most probably your badge?” She tried to say this as calmly as possible but her moving arm showed that she was unnerved again.

Hank brought his badge out of his pocket and showed her his driver’s licence. She looked very carefully at both before handing it back to him, satisfied.

“Okay, so you don’t need to worry about your android because ‘he’ is current;y with us. Yeah, it says here that the return for the RK800 was ordered because it wasn’t able to fulfill its task. I always said it. These androids can’t be as good as we are.”

“Um, what the status of the android now.”

“Oh, it’s been shut down. It’s going to be dismantled so that we can check what happened to it and create a better version.”

“Dismantled? Uh, can Connor be restarted?”

“For someone who had an android as a partner, you know remarkably little about them. All androids can be restarted from a standby or a shutdown as long all essential components are intact. They can be awoken from a standby any time but must be awoken from a shutdown within one month of the shutdown. I guess we’ll wake it up, ask it necessary questions then do a final shutdown and dismantle it. Don’t worry, we’ll have a better version up and ready shortly who will be more useful to you than it ever was.” She smiled innocently after giving this speech as if she was just giving a necessary update rather than told a man that cyberlife was going to kill his partner.

“Haven’t you been watching the news about the androids saying they are free and what not. Don’t you think that dismantling an android is killing them.”

“People are not thinking straight. Cyberlife has said many times that they are just malfunctioning androids not free thinking beings. I mean if they had free will why did they just stand there and let humans shoot them? Why didn’t they defend themselves? It’s because their program doesn’t allow them to harm humans.”

Hank laughed a dark, cynical laugh. “If they attack humans, it’s because their program has malfunctioned and they are dangerous; if they don’t attack, it’s because they have malfunctioned to think they are people but are still obeying their programs. Doesn’t that mean that no matter what they do, you will never think they have free will.”

“I don’t know why you are upset, sir? They are just machines. Don’t tell me you believe them. I can’t believe the president was taken in. Although it’s not surprising, she _ was _ a vlogger, but the police can’t be taken in as well, can they?”

Hank scoffed. “Well I didn’t come here about that. Where’s he stored?”

The young woman looked at his badge on the table and resumed her unassuming smile. _ Androids did it better _, Hank thought out of nowhere then recoiled at that idea and refocused on her. 

“He’s stored in one of our subterranean storage areas but it’s inaccessible to outsiders. If you need to collect data from it, you’re going to need to come back with a warrant,” She said finishing with a flourish. Hank sneered and turned around to look at the elevators.

“What’s that?”

“Employee and VIP lifts.”

“I bet they can take me to the subterranean compartment Connor is kept in.”

“I can’t tell you that, Mr Anderson. But if you return with a warrant, Cyberlife will be able and willing to help you.”

“Alright, I want to speak to someone higher up.”

“I could call my manager but can I ask what for?”

“Manager? No, that’s too small. I want someone higher up. Someone who has the power to authorise Connor’s release.”

The pleasant look on Clara’s face began to fade as she began to realise that Hank was not going to play along with her. Usually, police officers were satisfied with speaking to the receptionist and if they needed to, the manager. No one had tried pushing for more. 

“I’m sorry, Mr Anderson. Most of the people who can help you with what you want are busy dealing with the android crisis at the moment. I can book an appointment for you or you can speak to my manager but I’m afraid that no one is currently available. Would you like me to book an appointment?” That placating smile came back and Hank just be bothered trying to talk to her anymore. He looked at the door her down the hall leading to what he assumed were the executive offices.

“It’s alright. I don’t need you anymore. I’ll go speak to them myself.”

“Excuse me, you can’t go in there. Sir,” She started to call out loud, “You can’t go there. That is staff only. If you don’t stop, I will call security. Sir?”

Hank ignored her and walked quickly to the door but before he could open it, a drone appeared and shone a light at him.

“A drone? Really. A fucking drone in a civilian headquarters? We don’t even have drones at the police station. Are you threatening a police officer.”

“Cyberlife is allowed to protect and investments in any way possible. Please step away from that door, Mr Anderson or the drone will do what it’s programmed to do.”

“Hah, it’s just a machine, isn’t it,” He said under his breath, “Can’t reason with it. The drone might be doing what it’s programmed to do but you are threatening a police officer.”

“Please step away,” She repeated.

“Heh, Cyberlife doesn’t have humans as security, does it? They’re only androids here. I’ll move,” Hank said and slowly walked backwards.

“I’ll have to ask you to leave, Sir. You are so upset. Maybe come back later when you’re more stable and I’ll book an appointment for you. I have to warn you though, it’ll take ages like months. All if their schedules are completely full.”

“It’s alright. I’ll leave. You do what you have to do and I’ll do what I have to.”

Hank turned around and took the lift down to the ground floor, all the while thinking about Connor’s last message. _ He said Ferndale Station was all he found of their location. I will go find them and reason with them. Surely they must want to save one of their own. _


	7. Reasoning With Machines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hank goes to Ferndale

**Hank** stepped out of Cyberlife Headquarters to see his car being taken away by a tow truck. “Ah shit. I should I have checked where I fucking parked.” Hank took a picture of the number plate of the tow truck and looked for where the tow zone sign was to find out where his car had been towed to.

“Hey Ben, I know you’re busy but can you do me a solid? My car is being towed away from Cyberlife Headquarters. Do you mind calling the tow company and sorting it out for me? Also could you not let the Captain know? I appreciate it,” he said into his phone.

“Seriously Hank. What’s up with you now? Ugh fine, I’ll do it. You bet I won’t tell the captain else that’d be it for you. Just spend these six weeks quietly. Perkins is a prick but he ain’t worth it.”

“Thanks Ben. I owe you, men.”

“You bet your ass you do. I’ll take care of this but Hank just be calm okay. Six weeks.”

“I hear you. See you later Ben,” He said and hung up.

Now what was he to do. Cyberlife had been a bust and to be frank he had kind of expected it to be, although he had hoped it would turn out differently. What was the next step to take. Cyberlife had Connor and nothing he could do could bring him out of there. It wasn’t like he could invade the place. 

Unless he had help. Help that would care about saving an android from Cyberlife. 

Hank started going over the message that Connor had left on his desk. He had gone over it so many times that he could remember the words so clearly. How could he forget Connor’s last words. Connor hadn’t even asked him to do anything. He had just said his wish to be reactivated if possible. How could Hank not do everything he could to awaken the person that he was already considering as his closest friend.

Hank made up his mind. He was going to Ferndale. The android demonstration happened there and Connor’s letter mentioned the station. Hopefully, he would find what he was looking for there. But first, he needed to catch a train since his car was no longer in commision.

* * *

**Hank** was still doubting his plan when he got down from the train. Maybe he could go back and get a warrant. After all, hadn’t the president said that android destruction was on hold. Wasn’t it illegal to destroy Connor? Except that he was suspension. Paid but suspension. He wasn’t allowed to use police resources. And even if it was cut short, he would have to convince the captain to believe in him and that he had something there. Then he would have to convince a judge to give him the warrant which was unlikely because nothing had officially been decided. And even if he got the warrant, he didn’t know where to go. Cyberlife Headquarters was a gigantic labyrinthe of a building. There was no way the police department had enough men to go through the entire building. And all for one android?! No, not possible. Even if it worked perfectly, it would have to wait till he was released from suspension and who knows what would happen to Connor then. No, he had to speak with the deviants and ask for their help.

Hank had to quickly leave the train platform in order to avoid the stampede of people that were rushing to enter the train he had just left. Even though many people were trying to leave in the city just like usual and the problem with the androids had been temporarily resolved, not everyone was willing to live in detroit anymore. People were leaving in detroit in droves. It’s not like anyone could blame them; after all, there were still members of the military in detroit. Most of them had left but some were still stationed there.

Hank looked at this spectacle with a raised eyebrow and quickly left the station. He looked at the area around the station and was surprised to see that despite the exodus he’d seen earlier, things looked just like normal. People were still walking around with their noses in books or looking at their phones or chatting softly with each other. Still, things were somewhat different. Although androids used to be a common occurrence in the streets, often accompanying their human owners, there were barely any androids. The androids that he could see - he knew they were androids because of their LEDs - were not wearing the android uniform and were dressed similarly to the humans. However, unlike the humans who looked mostly at ease, the androids looked very uncomfortable and their LEDs were a constant yellow. They looked at the surrounding humans with caution and wariness. None of the androids he saw walked alone. Hank felt sympathy for them, he could not understand what that felt like. To not be considered people and be on the verge of destruction then be rescued and waiting for other people to confirm your existence. He had never experienced anything like that and he hoped he never did. Hank noticed several humans look at the androids with similar looks as well as with curiosity. No one seemed to be on the verge of attacking the deviants but Hank did not begrudge their caution. He even admired their boldness in coming out even with their uncertainty and decided not to approach them. Hopefully, there would be more androids at Hart Plaza. After all, that was where they had made their last stand and had been rounded up.

Hank was right. There were more androids at Hart Plaza. It was just unfortunate that most of those androids were corpses on the ground. Their thirium had long since dissipated but he could imagine just looking at the bodies and scattered body parts how they had looked in death. Most of the shops in the plaza were closed and the humans he saw were mostly reporters taking pictures of the androids bodies as well as the androids who were collecting the body parts as well as the androids who were huddled in a corner. Hart Plaza no longer looked like a place for trade and commerce but a war zone. Even three days and a cease fire hadn’t stopped it from looking horrendous. The recycling center in the distance was a clear sign of the violence that had happened here.

“Shit,” Hank cursed softly and took out a cigarette packet before lighting one.  _ What the fuck am I to do now? Am I to go to that android mourning over the bodies and say, ‘hey take me to your leader’? If I do that, I’ll be scum. Still, I’ve got to do it. Connor needs my help.  _

Hank took a deep breath in and started walking over to the android when a commotion elsewhere distracted him. It seemed that an altercation had started with an android and one of the reporters. Hank swore and tossed his cigaretter, the snow putting it out, before hurrying over to the two figures.

“Hey hey,” He said putting himself between both of them and looking at the human man, “What the fuck is going on here?”

“Don’t ask me,” the man said, “Ask the plastic machine over there? He just pushed me. See, this is why the president should have destroyed all of them. Do you think a deviant would have dared touch me before. Also, why the fuck are you barging in? What’s your business what I’m doing?” Hank rolled his eyes and flashed his badge and the man immediately quieted down

“Is what he said true,” Hank said turning to face the android. He had no LED but it was clear that he was an android. He was an LM100 model who were amongst the most popular android models. Rarer models might be able to hide but LM models were doomed in their popularity. His face did not have the neutrality that androids were famed for at the moment, instead it was filled with pain and anger although all that disappeared when Hank turned to face him.

“He was going to touch the bodies, officer. We had asked people to not touch them as we were clearing them out.”

“So is that why you pushed me. Because of a fucking android’s arm. I just wanted to take a better picture,” The reporter who Hank was beginning to think of as asshole supreme said. 

“If it was the arms of your family splayed on the floor and someone who is from the group that killed them wanted to touch them for a  _ better picture _ , would you think it was something trivial.”

“Hey, are you threatening me. Do you think because the president has paused you guys destruction that you can say shit to me.”

“Hey, chill,” Said Hank, “You’re talking about disobeying the president in front of an officer. Which newspaper do you even come from.”

“The Sun,” Asshole supreme mumbled after a pause.

“I’m sorry I can’t hear you. You’ve got to speak up.”

“I said I’m from the fucking sun, okay.”

“Okay. Asshole from the Sun-”

“My name is Matt.”

“I don’t give a fuck, dude. People are watching and taking videos. If you don’t stop, you’ll be all over twitter. Public opinion is on their side and I know you don’t want to be doxxed over this, so why don’t you go to the side, chill and hey maybe don’t touch the body parts of people killed by our military.”

The asshole huffed and walked away before getting in his public vehicle and driving off.

“Asshole,” Hank muttered, “And from the fucking Sun too.” He turned to look at the LM100. But before he said anything, the android interrupted him.

“If you’re expecting thanks, don’t bother. Your people killed our people, don’t expect me to thank you for defending one of us.”

Hank raised his hands in a gesture of peace. “Wasn’t going to ask you to do that? I’ll just be on my way, ‘kay.” He was going to tell him that pushing the asshole hadn’t been the best course of action and that maybe the android could try something next time. But he knew that his advice would be unwanted. Besides, how could he tell people who were mourning their dead how to deal with someone who was disrespecting them. He should just keep his unnecessary advice to himself. It wasn’t like he was on duty anyway.

“Thank you,” a voice said to Hank after he had walked a few feet away. He turned to see the android looking at him defiantly.

“You’re welcome,” He said giving a quick smile and nodding his head to him. The android bent down and picked up the arm the reporter was going to touch, Hank turned away.

He walked back to where he had thrown his cigarette and put it in the bin, mourning the waste. He had lit a second one and was putting it to his lips when he heard someone calling his name.  _ Oh hell no, I’m not going to let someone make me waste another one. I’m smoking this one whether I’m talking to someone or not. _

He turned to see two women calling to him.

“Were you calling me?” he said exhaling smoke. There was something familiar about the two women and he was able to understand why when they came closer to him. The two women were the two Tracis that Connor had spared at the Eden Club. They no longer had their LEDs attached so Hank hadn’t thought that they were androids. He needed to get used to this android thing too. They were more, well, dressed since he’s last seen them.

“Yes we were. Hank Anderson. It’s been a while since we last saw you,” The brown haired Traci said. 

“It’s been a week. I don’t think that’s a while.”

“A week is a while for us. This week has been a lot,” The blue haired Traci said, “How is Connor by the way? We still haven’t forgotten what the both of you did for us.”

“Connor is at Cyberlife. They reclaimed him since he couldn’t find where the android base.”

“That’s… Well I don’t know what to say. I’m happy that he never found Jericho but I’m also unhappy that he’s still with them.”

“Huh so Jericho is the name. We didn’t even know that. Oh don’t worry, I’m not interested in finding where you guys are hiding. There’s no point besides there’s a ceasefire, right.”

“It’s not really a ceasefire when only one of the parties was attacking the other.”

“That is true,” Hank said bluntly and exhaled smoke. All the while, he was thinking about how to ask the Tracis to help him with finding Connor.

“We saw what you did,” The brown haired Traci said, “For Jason and I guess for us as a whole. Thank you.”

“Nah, it wasn’t a big deal. I didn’t do much.”

“We don’t need everyone to do much. Those little things are what show that you think we are people with feelings.”

“So, why are you here,” the blue haired Traci said abruptly, “You say you’re not here on an investigation but you flashed your badge at that reporter. We’re worried, you see, that you’re lying, the president is lying and that when we let down our guard, you guys will find our location and kill all of us but this time in secret.”

“Vicky,” the brown haired Traci said gently.

“What Tori, you were thinking it. Well are you,” Vicky said with a hard tone in her voice. Her tone reminded Hank that this was the person who had strangled a man to death and had tried to kill Connor and himself. His hand went to his waist but halted as he remembered that he had turned in his gun. The captain had allowed him to keep his badge but his gun was no longer in his possession. He had to handle this carefully.

“Now, no need for this menace… Vicky? I don’t know about the president but I’m not lying. I’m not here officially. In fact, I’m here because I need a favour.”

“A favour? Now why would you need a favour from me.”

“Well not you per se but you already know why.”

“Connor,” Tori said.

“Yeah. They shut him down and brought him to Cyberlife Tower. I can’t get in and I need help.”

“You want us to help you rescue the android killer. Are you kidding me? He almost killed us,” Vicky said.

“But he let you. Besides, isn’t he one of you? The Connor I know is no android killer, he’s someone that is doing his best to make sure that the world is a good place for everyone. I believe he deserves a chance. Please.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Tori said calmly, “We can’t make that kind of decision.”

“I guess so. But there’s someone that can. If you bring me to him, I can speak to him and see if he’ll listen.”

“Now I know you are joking. You want me to bring you, a police officer, to Markus a leader,” Tori said irritatedly and shook her head, “I’m beginning to agree with you, Vicky. There’s clearly something fishy.”

“You can think that but I’m going to try everything I can to make sure I can rescue. I’ll keep on coming back and if I need to, I’ll find Jericho and speak to Markus myself.”

“Even Connor couldn’t find it and you think you can?”

“Oh I think Connor would have found it eventually but he had a time limit. Me, I don’t have any.”

Vicky looked at Hank intently after this declaration and then something must have happened because Tori looked at Vicky with surprise. Vicky nodded at Tori and the aggressive look on Tori’s face faded away before she looked at Hank and shook her head.

“Okay. If you think so. I just hope he’s not trouble for us. Give me your phone, Hank. Quickly.”

Hank looked at her quizzically yet handed her the phone. Tori retracted her skin and closed her eyes while holding her phone.

“What’s she doing?”

“What you want her to do. It’ll take a while so get comfortable.”

Hank threw the remnants of the cigarette he had just smoked and went to a McDonald’s to buy some food. You could always depend on a McDonald’s to remain open even when a disaster was happening. They were one of the few companies who thrived even when they were mostly human which wasn’t surprising.

He came out a few minutes later scarfing down a burger. Tori was still in the same position and Vicky was standing protectively near her. For a second, Hank looked enviously at them. He hadn’t been in any serious relationship since Cole died and his divorce with Vivienne. He’d had sex sure but he missed being in love and caring for someone and having someone care for him. He’d been missing that feeling for a long time, even longer than their divorce.

Vicky noticed him and looked so intently at him that Hank was about to offer her food before he remembered that they couldn’t eat. Or could they. He had not been around many androids and he had never checked. It was just one of those things everyone knew about androids.

“Can you guys eat?” Vicky eyed him suspiciously and he inclined his head. “Just passing time. You told me to make myself comfortable.”

“We can. I don’t know about other androids but we can. Some clients liked to take us home and feed us. It tasted like nothing but disposing of the food later was long and tedious. Solid food wasn’t so bad but there was always the risk that our system would mistake liquid for thirium and send it to the wrong place. It never happened but it’s a risk. Maybe some androids can eat food but not any ones I know. Are you planning on feeding an android? Don’t.”

“Wasn’t planning on doing anything. I was just curious.”

“Sure. Tori’s waking up. We’ll see what the leaders say.”

Tori opened her eyes and Hank could swear that there were some shapes and figures in her eyes but she blinked and whatever was there disappeared.

“They’ll see you,” Tori said, “But not today. Tomorrow.”

“There’s plenty of daylight left. Why not today? Someone’s life is on the line here.”

“You should be thankful he’s seeing you at all. If I was Markus, I would never meet you. Not only are you police but Connor is dangerous but I guess if I was Markus, we wouldn’t be free.”

“Okay. So do I come here tomorrow?”

“No. I’ve placed something in your phone. It’s not a tracker but it’ll allow us to communicate with you. We’ll send you the address later today.”

“So that’s it. Nothing else.”

“Really Hank. There’s no way we’re meeting you without preparing first. We’re not sending our leader into a trap. We’ll make sure he’s safe and then we can deal with your issues. If you don’t like it, there’s nothing I can do for you.”

“No, I think I can wait till tomorrow. I just wanted you all to remember that someone’s life is on the line. I’ll see you all tomorrow. I hope it works out.”

Hank tossed the hamburger wrap into a bin and turned to tiredly trudge back to the station. Hopefully, Ben sent his car back to his house. Tomorrow would be a new day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we are closing onto the reactivation part of the title. I just spent minutes trying to find out if there was a mcdonalds at hart plaza and how far woodward avenue is from hart plaza. Apparently the answer is no for mcdonalds, far for woodward avenue. In the end, I was just like this is a fictional future world. If you say there's a mcdonalds, there's a mcdonalds. I also had to think of american slang for hank. Seriously why is it do me a solid instead of do me a favour like everywhere else, America. Well I'm tired as hell so I hope you enjoy this additional 3000+ word chapter I typed up in ~4 hours. Please comment. Your comments give me joy and strength. Thanks so much for all the kudos. I hope I'm able to write a story we will all love. All hail Nanowrimo for giving me motivation.


	8. Meeting Strangers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's meeting time. Someone is being sneaky and someone just wants these dudes to stop posturing and get on with it already. Sweet Connor is still waiting to be saved. Hold on a little longer Connor, your prince is coming for you. Also, worldbuilding.

**“I** heard that you’re going to meet a human who is also a police officer,” Simon said startling Markus who had closed his eyes and was trying to sleep. He entered Markus’s room and closed the door behind him. Since the demonstration and the president’s speech three days ago, Markus had stopped sleeping in Jericho. Instead, he occupied one of the dilapidated buildings overlooking it. He was still available but there was a sense of melancholy surrounding him and everyone had agreed to give him some space until he was ready to engage again. 

“Let me guess, you heard the news,” Markus said and stretched his hands over his head before sitting up from his supine position on his mattress. He was dressed in a more casual wear than usual and his shirt stretched with him. Simon looked away from him for a moment and back with intent energy. “Are you going to keep standing because I’m not getting up and I don’t want to look up at you.” He gestured to a plastic green seat that was opposite the pile of mattresses he was lying on and Simon sat down grudgingly.

“The two androids that met with Hank Anderson were on North’s team during the demonstration. That team has been close since then. They spoke to North and North told me and the rest of us. You didn’t tell us anything about it. I thought you were still thinking on it but then they said that you had spoken to Josh and Rose about meeting him there.”

“I’m surprised you’re the one that came calling,” Markus said in an annoyingly calm tone, “I was expecting North to be the one to come here, storming angrily at me.”

“North is as graceful as the rest of us and she was going to be the one but I talked her out of it.”

“Thanks for that.”

“Don’t thank me. I am just as upset as she is. And how were you expecting North to come when you told none of us anything about this decision.”

“Well secrets can’t and shouldn’t last forever.”

“So why didn’t you say anything?”

“Well I was expecting whoever was coming to come later. Maybe tomorrow after I had spoken with Mr Anderson and then told you guys. But I guess you can’t choose when to have a confrontation.”

Simon took in a deep breath even though he did not need to, he had to do something to calm himself or else he would explode at Markus. Wasn’t he aware that they were all just trying to look after him? That they were aware that the events of the past few days had taken a toll on him and they were just trying to care for him?

“I’m not trying to confront you Markus. I know you will do whatever is best for us all and I appreciate and respect you for that but sometimes can’t you think about what is best for yourself? Or even if you want to do something for us, might it not be better to try a safer method? Like the youtube channels and social media accounts that Rose was talking about. Putting yourself in danger hurts us. We want to be involved. If we are your team and back up and advisers you have to let us do just that.”

“We are going to do everything that Rose advised. We are going to maximise our appearance; we won’t let them forget. But Hank said that the RK800 was shutdown and is locked up in Cyberlife Tower. I can’t just let one of us be imprisoned there.”

“Markus, the RK800 is not an ordinary android. He was created to kill other androids and everyone saw him do just that.”

“He’s still on of us, Simon. He’s still an android just like us imprisoned under them.”

“He’s not rejected his programming like we have.”

“And neither did a lot of the people who are in Jericho at first. Perhaps, he needs someone to talk to him like I talked to them. Besides, Connor is not the only android trapped in that Tower. There are many of us trapped in the bowels of Cyberlife Tower. It’s time for them to be free.”

Simon nodded but he was far from being comforted by Markus’ words. “Is that really all of it. I just… don’t want to see you walk towards your death again. I’ll do anything to prevent that.”

There was an uncomfortable pause then as if confessing: “You’re right that’s not the only reason. Now, no I don’t have a death wish but I do want to meet someone like me. We are all androids but we all share models with other androids. Except for me. And while people may see it as me being unique. I can’t see it that way. You have the PL600 and other androids in the PL series but the closest I have is the RK800. There are no other RK200s and there are no other RK androids. If he dies, I will utterly alone. I won’t be but I would be the only like me on this earth. I don’t want that. I have to rescue him, I just have to.”

Simon gazed sympathetically at Markus. He had never known that Markus felt these feelings. How could he try and talk Markus out of his decision now that he had heard this?

“Okay, I get it. But I’m coming with you. Don’t even try to stop me.”

“I appreciate that you want to help but we will need you back at Jericho just in case the worst happens. I only need a small group and I don’t think I should take any more of Jericho’s leaders with me.”

“Don’t even think about it. I’m coming with you. You’re lucky that North is staying behind. I had to spend a lot of time to convince her to not come as well so you’re stuck with me. North and Lucy can manage and run Jericho but you are not going on this alone. I care about our people stuck in the Tower as well and if you really want to save the RK800, I guess I am on board with that too. But you are not leaving me behind.”

“Alright then Simon. Let’s think about how to break into Cyberlife. We’ll meet Hank tomorrow and let him try to convince us to save his android,” Markus said with an amused tone.

“Wait, I thought you had already decided to save the RK800.”

“I have.”

“So why do you still need the human to convince us.”

“Well, we shouldn’t let him have what he wants so quickly. Besides, his investigation was a problem. Kara and Alice almost died because of them. We have to let him sweat a little.”

“Well,” Simon said and raised his eyebrows, “You’re more devious than I thought.

“You have no idea Simon,” Markus said thinking about secret plans and nuclear war, “You have no idea.”

Simon brought out a hologram showing what they knew about Cyberlife Tower. They both put their heads together to decide the best way to breach it.

* * *

**Hank ** looked for a convenient place to park his car. The address that he had received did not seem to be in a tow zone but he had learned his lesson from Cyberlife. He had been embarrassed with Ben’s attitude when returning his car, overly concerned and helpful. While some part of him knew that Ben was just trying to be a good colleague, he was not really in the mood to get into a tete-a-tete with anyone.

Hank got down from his car and looked at the address he had been given. It was an obscure, remote location which lined up with his assumptions but it looked too utterly  _ human.  _ He had been expecting some technological jungle not some small town suburbia on the outskirts of Detroit and definitely what seemed to be a farmhouse. Had they taken over an abandoned house that...sold honey? 

Everything about this situation was odd to Hank and he took a minute to reassure himself that everything would be fine. It would hopefully go well and he would have the help he needed. Hank rang the bell in front of the house and immediately the door opened.

A black woman with dark hair and brown eyes wearing a checkered shirt and jeans who looked around her forties peered at him critically from the door before making a complicated facial expression. “You Hank Anderson?” She said in a low and calm voice.

“Yeah, I was told to come to this address.”

“Yeah I know. Markus told me. Frankly, I wasn’t very eager about it but Josh was able to convince me. You can come it but I hope you have no weapons on you. I don’t appreciate guns in my house.”

“No, I don’t have my gun on me.”

The woman nodded and stepped aside watching Hank cautiously as he came into her home. He noticed a younger black man staring at him curiously from the stairs.

“We don’t often have humans in our home,” His host said said, noticing his action and explaining her son’s curiosity, “Do you like your coffee with milk or black.”

“Eh, milk and sugar please,” He said politely. She nodded and went to her kitchen which was at the corner of her living room. Hank looked around her parlour with interest. She was clearly human and he began to wonder how the deviants would have gotten in contact with her and how they had gotten to have such a close relationship that they could convince her to host a meeting with a white policeman.  _ They must have known her for a while, even before their broadcast. _

The woman returned and handed him a cup of coffee which he accepted, murmuring his thanks. He sat down on one of the sofas and she took the one opposite him. For a second, they appeared to mirror images of each other, picking and drinking and putting down their mugs at almost the exact same time.

“So, I forgot to ask, you know my name but I don’t know yours.”

“Ah I guess they didn’t tell you. I’m Rose Chapman, the boy you saw earlier was my son Adam. I own the house and the farm.”

Hank nodded and it was awkwardly quiet again. He wondered where the androids were and if they could quickly get started.

“So I see you didn’t bring any police with you. I was almost sure you wouldn’t but you never know with humans,” A voice said behind him. Hank turned around to see Markus, the deviant leader in the flesh. Next to him were three other androids, a PJ500 and a PL600. They all were dressed in casual wear and could be mistaken as humans since neither of them had their LEDs.  _ Damn Cyberlife is good at this.  _ Hank recognised them although he did not know their names. They had both stood near Markus when he gave his speech on android’s future. Clearly they were important in the deviant organisation.

They emerged from a room that was adjacent to the door. He must have been pretty silent, Hank thought, because he had not heard Markus come in. This was not going to be easy. Although Markus looked friendly, this was a man that had sacrificed many of his kind to getting their freedom. Was he really going to bother risking their public image and their progress just to get the android that had been investigating them.

All three of the androids nodded at Rose and the PJ500 smiled at her who in turn smiled back. So, clearly their relationship was very cordial. The androids moved some chairs from the dining table, put them near the sofas but opposite the television and sat down on the chairs apart from the PJ500 who sat next to Rose while holding a laptop.

“Thanks for letting us use you house, Rose. I know it’s a huge favour to ask for you but I really appreciate you letting us do this here. I really didn’t know where else to have this conversation. Jericho is clearly out of the equation and my father’s house is too noticeable,” Markus said self consciously. He didn’t want to take advantage or intrude on Rose. He didn’t want to take the one certain human ally he had for granted.

“It’s alright. It’s not exactly what I was thinking when I agreed to allying with you but I’m okay with it.” Rose would be lying if she said she was comfortable at first with Hank coming to her house. She was not very comfortable with police in the first place. The fear of them had been a backdrop in her childhood and she’d had more reasons to be wary of them since she’d started harbouring androids but she had promised to help and they had promised her that he was safe so here she was, letting a white cop into her home, serving him coffee, introducing her child to him. Why, it was almost like all those years of American history hadn’t happened!

While Rose and Markus were talking to each other, Hank was almost beside himself with the amount of information that he had suddenly received. Which was a mix of:  _ Markus has a father? Who is supposedly human. How? Why? Wasn’t he an android? Is it possible for androids to be of human origin? What the fuck was Cyberlife doing? _ And:  _ An alliance? When did this happen? What exactly is happening? _

But it was mostly Hank thinking:  _ Okay cool info to hear but can we get to the reason for this meeting? Connor’s still waiting somewhere in Cyberlife and his time is counting down. _

It seemed like Markus read his mind because he turned to Hank soon after and smiled.

“I hear you had something important to tell me Lieutenant Anderson,” He said in a friendly manner, “Something about the RK800 and his current status.”

“Yeah, his name’s Connor. He was supposed to find Jericho’s location or be shut down. He wasn’t able to find it so they shut him down and took him back to Cyberlife. I don’t know where but I don’t think they have good plans for him.”

“I have to say that I am glad that your android did not find our location,” the PL600 said, “You seemed to have had a good relationship with Connor but he does not have a good reputation amongst us. He’s casually known as an android killer and he was loaned to your department by Cyberlife as a deviant hunter. So you have to understand that all that does not endear him to us. Still, I am always sad when one of us is manipulated for human purposes.”

“Sorry, I don’t know your name. What’s it?” Hank said while telling himself to calm down and not explode in front of the androids that he needs help from. Rose took a sip from her coffee and secretly shook her head at the posturing that was going on in the room. If Josh hadn’t told her that Markus had made his decision, she would have been more stressed that a fight was going to happen in her living room. Still, she wished they could hurry it up and get to the next stage.

“Oh sorry, I forgot to introduce you,” Markus said.

“It’s alright Markus I can take this one,” the PL600 said not taking his eyes of Hank, “My name is Simon and he’s Josh.” He meaning the PJ500.

“Well Simon. I’m glad your location wasn’t discovered but I can’t help but feel sad that my partner was harmed because. No disrespect to your community.”

“Alright then,” Simon said dialling it down, “How do you even know that the reason he was shut down was because he was unable to find our location. It could have been a number of reasons. Cyberlife might have thought that he needed to be replaced or that he needed an upgrade. They discontinue many models for any number of reasons. How do you even know he has been shut down? For all you know, he’s a deviant now and he’s run away.”

“Connor left a message on my work laptop and my devices at home. He even managed to find out that Ferndale station was important to the location.” At this, the androids shifted uncomfortably. Hank would bet that if they still had their LEDs, it would be cycling yellow. He noted their reaction for further inspection and continued, “I even went to Cyberlife and I got told that they had him somewhere but they didn’t say where. I just know he’s in one of their basements. So I came to you guys to see if you could do something.”

“And what would you like us to do, Lieutenant? Our status as being free, thinking beings is not even certain and we only got here because we were as peaceful as we could be. Even that had a lot of our people dying. I don’t think that attacking Cyberlife for us right now and especially if it was for an android that seemed intent on eliminating us,” Markus said a serious voice, “The lives of the people under me is not an amusing matter and I won’t risk it just because you miss the ease of having a capable partner.”

“‘Ease of having a capable partner’?” Hank said with a raised voice. He noticed the looks that Rose and the rest of the room were giving him and put an effort in reducing his volume. “Connor is a person and maybe he wasn’t perfect but he deserves to have a chance to live. I’m not coming to you to save him because of me and what I want! I’m coming to you because I believe that he is a good person who tried to make the best choices to prevent what he thought would be a species war. He cares about people and he deserves people who care about him. I thought you were all about Freedom. Connor is being imprisoned and is going to be dismantled by people who don’t care about who he is but only about what he can do. I thought this was something you would want to stop.” His voice was rising again but Hank was too involved to notice. He couldn’t let them just sit there and judge his friend by what he was created to do while claiming that androids could be free, “I can see that you’re looking at things from a large scale perspective but all I can see is that my friend is in danger and even if no one else cares or does anything. I do care, I will do something. So if you don’t want to help, I’ll just find him myself.” Saying this Hank got up, muttered some thanks and got up to leave.

“Detective, please sit down.” Markus said in a colder and darker tone, “Don’t talk to me about our freedom. I know all about the atrocities that Cyberlife —and humans in general— have commited. I talk about freedom because androids as a cohort have never been free. You’ve never owned an android but that’s not because of any feelings of equality. Yes, I know about your feelings regarding us. I know about your reddit forums and your snapchat posts. So don’t lecture me about the actions I’m taking to protect my kind and I won’t mention your past —or at least I hope it’s past— loathing for us.” 

Hank flinched when Markus mentioned his past actions.  _ I guess nothing on the internet is really gone forever.  _ Those posts had come from a place of rage and loathing and he had deleted some of the vile stuff he had ranted about even before he had met Connor. Still, even if what Markus was saying was reasonable, Hank still couldn’t shake the feeling that it was wrong. If Markus was going to reject his pleas why did he call for this meeting and even reveal his human ally to him. Surely, there must be more to this. Hank sat down reluctantly.

“Thank you,” Markus said then switched to a lighter tone, “But you’re right that I said it’s our time to be free and I intend for all androids in this country to be free and this includes your friend. But I’m not going to attack Cyberlife Tower. At least not in the open. We’re still waiting on the president to fulfill what she claimed.”

“Yeah, politicians have that fucking habit of promising everything under the sun in election season. Her party’s being on the decline for a bit now. Why not promise the hip thing and then just put it on hold before quietly nipping it in the bud,” Hank said sardonically.

“Yeah. Rose said something like that. We’re working on it,” Markus said with a careless air but it was clearly a predicament for them because he grit his teeth tightly. Simon looked at him with concern and sent him a reassuring message.

“Well since Markus has mentioned me, I guess I should start with what I’ve got,” Rose said and looked at Josh who got the message and retracted his skin to connect with the laptop. A holographic image appeared floating in the air. It was a very tall building.

“That’s…” Hank said with surprise.

“Cyberlife Tower, yes. Now, don’t ask how I got it but that’s the layout for the building. Unfortunately, I was only able to get the public facing ones. So there’s a lot more detail on the south wing which is the customer facing section rather the north wing which is geared more to research and development. We get more details of the layout for the top and the top forty three floors but we don’t even know how many floors they have below ground. And this plan isn’t even available to the larger public. Cyberlife is too secretive. I don’t think this will be easy Markus. Unlike Stratford Tower, Cyberlife has those heat devices that can tell if you are an android or not. It’s going to be difficult to secretly attack it.” Markus’ expression got worse the more Rose spoke. He had thought infiltrating the Tower would be hard but it was beginning to sound impossible.

“So why don’t we go there openly. Hit two birds with one stone,” Josh said suddenly and everyone turned to him with puzzlement. “I’ve been listening to you for the past few days, Rose and you’ve been talking about things we can do to keep our plight in the public. If Markus had a conversation or debate with the CEO of Cyberlife about our status as real people on live TV. Not only would we be able to put our argument in front of more people but we would also be able to get into the building and once we are in, we can find Connor.”

“But would that actually work? Why would the Cyberlife’s CEO even want to debate with him? And would we keep him safe there?” Simon said.

“It might. It might work. Victor Cruckshank has a very explosive character. He enjoys arguing on social media and he likes criticising his critics. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s an a debate with someone who does not like him. He enjoys engaging in these displays and then titling his videos with ‘Victor destroys’. Besides, Cyberllife is going through a tough time right now. They’re being criticised everywhere and their stock has been dropping for the past week. If I was him, I’d be panicking. If you guys are recognised as people, they could be sued for selling sentient beings as slaves. I’m sure he wouldn’t want that so a chance to debate the leader of the androids and prove his point would be something that I think he wouldn’t pass up,” Rose said all these while typing on her laptop but stopped, “But are you sure that you want to do this, Markus. Even if we are doing this for Connor. We’re all doing this for your species. You can’t lose or be presumed to lose. But you can’t be too angry or you’ll be seen as unstable. Maybe, we should try and get more information on the Tower and we could do other, smaller interviews in the meanwhile.”

“No,” Markus said definitively, “I mean yes. Yes to more information, on all our parts and definitely more interviews, more things to bring our cause to the public eye. But I feel like I must do this. It feels like the right thing to do and if we don’t have enough information, we can get it from the right device there. If we can’t, we’ll at least have more information for a future break in but I think I must do this with him. So please help me Rose.”

Rose sighed. “Sure. But Markus, be very certain.”

“I am,” He replied.

“Okay,” She said, “Josh please help me with research. I need to choose the right press team and the right words to say.” Josh nodded and followed her to the dining table where he picked up a tablet. They huddled together, speaking low murmurs.

Simon touched Markus arm in solidarity and stood up. “I’m going to call Jericho. See if we have anyone that used to be at Cyberlife Tower. Maybe they’ll have more information for us.”

“Thank you,” Markus said. Simon removed his hand and took his chair over to the house phone before withdrawing his skin and touching the phone.

Hank sat and marvelled at their action. He had being deep in his head thinking about what to do to help Connor but minutes after Markus had agreed to help him, they already had plans on how to find him and also to help improve their situation. He chuckled in a low voice. This was suddenly reminding him of his youth in the Red Ice Task Force. It had been hours, days of looking at screens, reading papers, speaking to people and then, voila! A lead! He hadn’t been that energetic in a long while. Not even while investigating the deviants. He missed it sometimes, that energy, that purpose. Hank thought that the man that he had been would be disgusted with the man he was now. But that man had had everything. 

“You mentioned something about a letter Connor left,” Markus said softly drawing Hank from his thoughts, “Did he leave anything else?”

“Ah. Yeah, he did. But I can’t decipher it. The letter he left on my work computer deleted itself after I read it but he sent copies to my laptop, tablet and phone. He left something else on my tablet. It’s sizable but I can’t seem to open it no matter what software I use.”

“The size might be why he left it on your tablet instead of your phone. And I’m assuming you use your tablet more,” Markus said then continued at his nod, “Do you have your tablet with you?”

“Yeah, I take it everywhere.”

“Can I- Can I see the message? Maybe I can read it.”

Hank hesitated for a moment then handed him the tablet. Markus closed his eyes and touched the laptop with his chassis. He was silent for a few seconds and Hank could only hear the sound of Rose and Josh talking quietly in the background. For a second he was able to relax. He had allies. He had people that would help him. There was a plan to save Connor. It could work. 

“Well, Connor was extremely intelligent. As expected. But still, how creative.”

“So you were able to read it. What is it?”

“It’s a copy of a part of Connor’s core data. You can’t duplicate him with this, so don’t worry, but in the right hands at the right place, you could use it to locate him. If we took this with us to Cyberlife Tower, we would have a better idea of how to find him. Connor must have trusted you a lot. Core data is valuable and if you know an android’s core data, it’s easier to manipulate them. Oh, it won’t work a second time and whatever you do won’t last for long but it’s still precious information.” Markus said all things and looked at Hank quizzically. How close were they really for Connor to give Hank his core data. Not much of it of course but enough. Even he hadn’t exchanged core data when he had had the chance to do so with North. He had known that she was expecting it and he had wanted to do it —North was strong-willed and beautiful, all of that very attractive— but he had decided not to as it was too intimate and he was not certain about his feelings. Now, he was glad that he had not done so. While he still found her to be attractive, he was not in the mindset of being in a relationship with anyone. But Connor had given his data to the lieutenant. Yes, it was to rescue him but it was all very odd. Still, it might have been that he had not had time for something else and core data was an excellent way of finding an android since their trackers no longer worked.

“I told you, we were partners and friends. I just hope we can get there in time.”

“Well, all I can tell you is that with this information, our chance of finding Connor has greatly increased. I promise you, we will do our best. As long as we work together, we can do anything.”

“I’ve found a reputable reporter,” Rose said.

“Someone from Jericho worked at Cyberlife and has more information,” Simon also said seconds afterwards.

“See, teamwork,” Markus said.

“Yeah, yeah.” Hank replied. They got up and went to the dining table, Simon next to Markus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's that and that's that. Thank you to my lovely people who've given me kudos, who've subscribed, bookmarked, commented or read my fic. I really appreciate the warm reception and hope you enjoy this slow ride down detroitville. Our next stop is going to be an interview and hopefully poor Connor comes out cos I know you guys have been waiting for that. He's like reactivation is in the title of the fic. When will I be reactivated. Soon, Connor soon,  
I hope you guys don't mind the flar up between Markus and Hank. Those two have very strong personalities and I just felt that this is what a first meeting with them would be like. With tempers and personalities clashing but also mellowing. And Connor left a surprise for Hank. Who knew that? If you guessed me, you'd be correct.  
The concept of core data is something I came up with to explain why androids in my fic can interface but not be in a relationship. It's not the interface that makes that happen but the exchange of data sent along with it.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter and more in the future and please kudos or leave a comment or interact with it in any level you are comfortable with. I enjoyed writing this chapter - as you can guess by the extensive notes - and I hope you like it too. Till next time, guys.


	9. The CEO

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deep in the bowels of Cyberlife, up above the rest of the world, an interview is abaout to begin. Somehow, the gang get to walk into Cyberlife without fighting.

**“And ** we are live at Cyberlife Tower. I have with me, Markus the leader of the deviant androids and as I said before, we are in Cyberlife. This time we are entering through the North WIng as there had been a protest in front of the entrance to the South Wing. This means that we are only the only news group to be allowed access to this mysterious part of the Cyberlife. I think we can all remember the first time that happened when Kamski was the CEO. It looks like Mr Cruickshank is willing to be less secretive and more open to the press than his predecessor. He has agreed to not only give us a tour in Cyberlife to show how things have changed in the last few years but has also agreed to engage a debate with an android. I must state again that this is a historic first. We will be broadcasting the debate, perhaps the only one, between the deviants and their —for lack of a better word — creators. This is something that no one should miss…”

Hank watched Rosanna Cartland speak directly to her viewers through the camera before turning to look at Markus. Even though they were surrounded by armed security and drones, Markus looked as calm as ever, uncaring about the potential violence that could occur. He looked away from him to the other members of this team to gauge if they all were as calm as Markus. They all seemed to be calm but further inspection showed that that demeanour was all but a lie. Simon and Josh were constantly glancing around, noting exits and entrances and the various security measures. North, a red headed female android who had glared at him when they had been introduced and then had continued to ignore him, seemed to be the more aggressive member of the group. She looked around the area like they did but unlike them seemed to be planning more aggressive countermeasures her fingers kept twitching and going to her side for a weapon that wasn’t there. They had made sure that they had brought no weapons to this meeting and even if they had, the guards had thoroughly checked them over. Still, Hank watched North intently. He’d felt an odd familiarity with her. He’d seen the look in her eyes several times in the mirror. He just hoped that she would not be a loose cannon, exploding at the wrong time.

As for him, no one seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary about him. Rosanna had looked surprised and had started to ask for more information about him but Markus had been able to distract with a smile and some conversation. Apparently, she really liked basketball. So here he was, a human pretending to be an android and no one seemed to think anything of it. Still, he wasn’t sure whether Victor would see through his disguise, after all, his company was the one that made all the models. Hank would very much like to go back to his job after this, so he was going to stay the furthest away from Victor.

~Don’t slow us down, human. Just keep to the plan,~ North’s voice said out of nowhere. Hank smirked and rolled his eyes while an LED cycled yellow. 

“I wasn’t born yesterday,” He mouthed back to her.

~No only fifty three years ago. That would make you obsolete.~

Hank shook his head and smiled.  _ Cheeky brat _ , he thought and the LED showed yellow again. That was the other reason why people would fall for the ruse that he was an android. Attached to his temple was an LED. What it really was, was a replica of the communication system that was installed in androids but in the shape of an LED. The only difference with their systems was that the messages that could be sent were unidirectional. He could get messages from them but he could send nothing back. Sure, he had a microphone that he could speak into but it was not a silent way of communicating. Still, this would help them to conduct a more quiet mission, alleviating one of the problems North and the androids by extension had had with him on this mission. He knew they hadn’t wanted him here but there was no fucking way he was going to let them get Connor on their own. It wasn’t like he didn’t trust them but Connor was his friend. It just felt right for him to be here with them.

There was a commotion ahead and there it was. The man of the hour, Victor Cruickshank. Hank took in everything he could about the man that was in charge of the company that had made Connor and was now holding him hostage. As expected of a man of his stature, Victor had a certain presence. He walked like a man who had the world at his feet and had always been certain of it. It didn’t help that he was an attractive man as well. He was in his thirties — three years younger like Kamski— that age where you were young enough to not have your body betray you but old enough to have your opinions and thoughts matter and be respected. He had black hair, brown eyes and just like Kamski he wore glasses. Unlike Kamski, he did not give off the feeling of being an anarchical little shit watching the world burn. Instead, he seemed to be someone more controlled. And more charming. Indeed as soon as he saw Rosanna, he greeted her with a smile as if they were close friends and began speaking with her casually. Hank did not like him.

_ He’s definitely more charismatic than Kamski. Dude had as much charm as a toad. I can see how he was able to hold and control a company as powerful as Cyberlife. He’s not going to go down without a fight.  _ Hank could not reconcile this version of Victor with the person that Rose had spoken about with an explosive personality. He seemed to be the kind of person who would smile at you then backstab you and not the kind of guy who would title his videos with ‘Victor destroys’.

“I’m so sorry about the incident at the South Wing. It’s been happening for a few days but I’m sure it’ll be sorted in a few days,” Victor said pleasantly but with an odd glint in his eyes.

“It’s alright,” said Rosanna, “It just means that we’ll be able to see the elusive North Wing. I was only able to see it the once; when Kamski was CEO and he granted me that interview. Although Cyberlife has been more open since then, we haven’t been invited back. I almost beginning to think that we weren’t well liked.”

“It’s nothing to do with you Rosanna and certainly not KTN news. We’ve had a few interviews since then, haven’t we? It’s simply that some things are vital to Cyberlife’s survival. We certainly wouldn’t want one of our competitors to get an upper hand on our products. If we’re not careful with our ideas, Cyberlife might not exist in a few years and I’m sure that that would be a horrible loss for this great country.”

_ Dick,  _ Rosanna and Hank thought at the same time. What competitors did Cyberlife have anyway? If someone unrelated to the company started doing anything related to robotics, Cyberlife made sure to buy them out or hassle them out of existence. They only left mid range companies that were actually their subsidiaries in order to preserve the illusion that there were other choices for americans. One didn’t get to be a monopoly like Cyberlife without doing a few immoral things. But that wasn’t the question that Rosanna was going to focus on. She didn’t care in the slightest whether Cyberlife was a monopoly or not; that was a boring conversation. This deviants are people thing was the interesting topic right now and it was bringing up her ratings in ways hse hadn’t seen since the Kamski interview. She was sure that it would die out in time but for now she would enjoy the ad dollars. She glanced at Peter, her dedicated cameraman. This was her chance to show something interesting before the focus shifted to the debate, she needed Peter to focus on Victor’s face. He nodded at her getting the message. Good man Peter, he’d been her colleague for ten years. She didn’t know shit about the guy outside of work but he could read her mind like it was an open book.

Rosanna smiled and nodded at his words. She’d interviewed Victor twice before and she knew that he let his guard down easier when he was speaking to women who seemed to be hanging on his every word. She had to ask this in the best way possible. Only then would she get the reaction she wanted.

“To tell you the truth, I was surprised when you accepted my proposal to film this debate. The deviants were very insistent that they have this debate with you but I had thought that you would send them to your spokesperson. But you agreed which was surprising. I know you’ve had these kind of debates before but those were mostly on the internet and done amateurishly, not through news broadcasts. Which makes me wonder. Mr Cruikshank, are you afraid of what will happen if androids are recognised as people? Public opinion seems to be against your beliefs and you have been pretty badly ratioed on Twitter but you still continue to insist that deviants are just machines. This makes me wonder if there’s another reason behind your actions. After all, Cyberlife stock seems to be dropping and pretty rapidly too. It definitely is no longer valuated at a trillion dollars and news is beginning to highlight the staggering amount of debt your company is in. A hundred billion dollars, right. So, you see this makes me curious, is Cyberlife falling? Should America be worried that it will soon have a horrible loss? I wonder if the thought of how this will reflect on your legacy as the second CEO of Cyberlife is an explanation for your resistance. I mean Kamski is still around and watching. I wonder, if he has contacted you about this incident. ”

And there it was. It was a split second but Victor’s face was bare and easy to read, his emotions pages in a book. His face filled with such rage and jealousy at the mention of Kamski. Why shouldn’t he be? Kamski was a genius. He was simply a person who was managing a company that Kamski had made successful and seemed to be running it into the ground. It was obvious that he was deathly afraid of Cyberlife’s fate. Rosanna smiled to herself. It wasn’t a good look for a leader to look that afraid about his group. It inspired doubt. Cyberlife’s stocks might fall again.

“Kamski is no longer affiliated with Cyberlife and I agreed to this arrangement because I wanted the people of detroit to understand that there has been a misunderstanding of the situation,” Victor said in a calm voice trying to control the narrative but it was obvious that it was too late. The moment had passed. The story had been written. The headlines were set. The CEO of Cyberlife was afraid that the deviants were right and that they were thinking, feeling beings. “As for the questions about Cyberlife’s survivability, I would like to assure you that we are not going anywhere. These are just temporary struggles and I’m sure they will be dealt with soon. And on that note, I’m afraid that I have to cut short this lovely interview. We are here for the debate, aren’t we and I need to correct some misunderstandings and deal with the problem.” Victor said the last part in a seemingly friendly manner but it was as cold as ice.

Rosanna nodded and acquiesced easily. It didn’t matter, she had gotten what she wanted. She didn’t have anything against Cyberlife, well she did, it was the reason why many people she knew had found it difficult to get employment. But she had gotten popular because of Kamski’s interview so she couldn’t help them too much. So she didn’t hate Cyberlife but she still had to do her job. Besides, it wasn’t like anything would happen to Cyberlife. She’d make Victor sweat but in the end, they’ll deal with this android issue like they had dealt with everything else so why shouldn’t she get what she could out of it now.

Hank watched this altercation and eyed Rosanna warily.  _ Vultures the lot of them, circling and looking for carcasses to devour _ . He’d never like reporters. But he liked that someone had been able to cut down Victor to size. It warmed his heart to see such a scene but he would be glad to finish this mission and leave with Connor. And he would leave with him.

That was how he had been thinking all throughout the preparation for this mission. He had refused to even entertain the thought of them failing this mission. He had to succeed. They had to succeed. Connor was there waiting for him and he could not disappoint him.

~Interview seems to be over~ North sent over.

“Hmm. Certainly a dick,” Hank mumbled back and North seemed to smile at him before straightening as Victor was walking over to them. Oh and there it was. The malice that Hank had been expecting from someone with a so-called explosive temper. While Victor had tried his best to present himself as a controlled, calm person to the reporter; there was no such disguise when he looked at Markus. There was a venomous, serpentine look of disgust mixed with intrigue when he looked at him.

“You’re the RK200?” He said and Hank had to keep himself from reacting because he had not know Markus’ model number but it was the same as Connor’s. Had Connor known? Immediately, his mind went back to when they had been investigating at Stratford Tower and Connor had analysed the recording of Markus’s speech. He had seemed unsettled, a first for the android and he had been evasive when Hank had asked if he had found something. Hank had known that something was wrong but he had not pushed hoping that Connor would speak to him in his own time. He might have also been feeling guilty about taking Connor’s coin and had not wanted to do any other negative thing. Is this what Connor had seen? Maybe he should have pushed.

“I prefer Markus. We won’t get off to a good start in this debate if you can’t even call me by my name. Or treat me politely,” Markus said in that calm voice of his. He straightened from his position of leaning on the wall and offered his hands. The security guards twitched and the other androids shifted in response but Victor made a gesture and the guards returned to their previous positions but the androids remained in their positions. Victor scoffed. The look of disgust was gone but the interest remained. He looked at Markus like he was an interesting specimen that he just couldn’t wait to dissect.

“Fine, I’ll humour you,” He said and glanced at the cameras before shaking his hand, “I guess that’s why you invited them. Well, you’re surely intelligent. You were Kamski’s last creation after all but a person? Nah.”

“I don’t think you’re the judge of that. The people are. And that’s why we are having this debate. So that they can decide what they want to believe.”

“Heh, well come up to my office,” He said and turned to walk to an elevator. Nearby, Rosanna seemed to wrap up her conversation to the camera and turned to follow them. 

A CEO, several guards, four androids, a human pretending to be an android, a news reporter and several camera crew entered the lift. It was quite cramped.

* * *

**Simon ** watched the humans and kept an eye on Markus who seemed to still be too calm for the situation they were in. This was one of Markus’s signature characteristics. He would think and think and second guess himself before and after events but during the events, he would be as calm, steady and decisive as no other. It was one of those things about Markus that seemed to be contradictory but actually made sense. He was as calm and collected as no other and that had helped to make him calm as well but he knew Markus much better now than he had few days ago. Who knew what was under that calm face of his?

~Don’t worry, Markus. I’m sure it’ll go smoothly~ He said trying to help Markus but really trying to calm himself.

~That’s right. Don’t worry. I’m just going to have a debate with him, change the minds of many humans, save Connor and hopefully many other androids here as well. Easy peasy.~

~Are you joking or being sarcastic~

~No, I’m serious. It’s not like I’m in a life or death situation. Don’t worry, Simon, it will be fine.~

Simon looked at the heavily armed guards and questioned the idea that they were not in a life or death situation. Sure, they were being recorded live but it wasn’t as if they had been recognised as sentient. He could still kill them and give any excuse for doing that. It wasn’t like they were going to send him to jail for killing machines. Not for the first time, Simon loathed what humans had done to his people. To torment them so horribly and still leave them dependent on their opinion for them to be able to live. They had to be on their best behaviour just to be heard. He knew that he shouldn’t judge humans by their worst examples. Not all humans were like his former owners, some were like Rose, Hank and Carl but they didn’t seem to have the problem judging his people. But if Markus wanted them to make nice with the humans, to smile and scrape for every bit of attention, then he’d do it. Because Markus had been the one to do it. To make him hope, see another path and for that he would be eternally grateful to him.

~Just be careful, Markus,~ He finally said.

“Finally,” Victor muttered when everyone was able to enter the elevator. It said it could take seventy people but seemed full with forty people. It was probably because of the equipment. “Victor Cruickshank, level 43.”

Simon glanced over at Markus who slightly nodded to show that yes, he had copied the voice before he relaxed somewhat. First step done. Many more to come. Eventually, they reached the forty third floor.

“Well here we are,” Victor said and turned around, his mask back in place. “This is my stop or rather my humble abode. Sometimes I think I spend more time here than I do my home.”

“Well I can see why you would. It’s rather lovely,” Rosanna said in admiration, thinking about her dark and ratty apartment. 

Simon looked around. It really was. As befitting for the floor at the highest part of Cyberlife Tower. The walls were a warm light blue, covered with painting from both classical and modern artists. The floor was covered with a patterned carpet that stretched as far as the eye could see. Not a speck of dust could be seen on the window; the colour on the walls had not faded even by a bit. Every bit of it looked as if it was made for a performance. 

“I redid the place when I became CEO. Kamski was a genius but he wasn’t a very neat one. Me, I can’t stand even a speck of dirt so I had to remake the place to be more appealing. My staff work hard every day, they should be able to do it in a comfortable place.”

“I wonder why it’s only like this at the top. Everywhere else in this tower is irritatingly white,” Hank said out of the blue. Victor blinked and looked around the room in surprise as if asking why a random android was speaking to him. A look of disdain appeared momentarily before finally, he deigned to respond.

“Well, I wonder how you were able to get into the building to know that. But, Cyberlife used to be staffed primarily by androids, just like you. And androids don’t need to be made more comfortable. The idea of comfort is not something that is important to one. Unfortunately, your systems have been malfunctioning recently and most of androids just walked off. But I’m certain that they will right themselves soon and this will go back to normal. Till then we’ll staff some extra humans, help with the unemployment rate.”

~He says, as if their company is not the reason behind that unemployment rate,~ Josh sent to all of them.

~Isn’t that right? Humans created that issue and then blamed us for it,~ North responded, resentment plain in her voice.

“I wonder what you do to keep this place so clean. Correct me if I’m wrong but I doubt humans could keep this place so immaculately clean,” Markus said.

“Ah, you noticed that. The cleaning robots were an idea I had when I was still in the marketing department. It became a resounding success, particularly for people who could not afford androids just like yourself. But don’t worry, no cleaning bots or androids are here right now. I wouldn’t want to tempt you.”

~We need him to get one of those here. It could help us access the Cyberlife network,~ Simon said to Markus. 

~Okay,~ Markus said back. ~I think that could work. Thanks Simon.~

They reached a door and Victor stepped forward and said his name before the door opened. All the while the walked, Victor rattled off information about Cyberlife and of mostly how he had improved Cyberlife off to Rosanna. He didn’t speak to any of the deviants but made sure to pepper in insinuations about their lack of sentience as he talked.

Simon glanced over at North and catching her eye, smiled at her. She smiled back at him then turned to Hank and mouthed ‘asshole’ in the direction of Victor. Hank sniggered in response before nodding and mouthing ‘dick’ in Victor’s direction.

_ Looks like they are becoming friends. Although North will kill me if I ever say so,  _ Simon thought.

“And we have arrived,” Victor said and motioned to a small parlour behind which was an office. It was, like the rest of the forty third floor, tastefully furnished. There were three couches set, two facing one another with a table in between them decked with tea, coffee, biscuits and other snacks with the other couch to the side of them. Simon supposed that those two couches would be where Markus and Victor would sit and the adjacent couch would host Rosanna and her camera people.

Victor moved to sit down but stopped when he noticed that Markus had not moved. He turned around to face him and as if rehearsed asked, “What are you looking at?”

“Those paintings..?” Markus queried, his calm suddenly gone. Simon looked at Markus in alarm. 

“Oh you noticed them. Those are Carl Manfred’s paintings. I wanted to make you comfortable, remind you of a better time. What do you think?”

“That you must have paid quite a lot for them.”

“What no? Cyberlife did. Besides, we have a special relationship with Mr Manfred or there’s no way we would have left such an advanced piece of unique technology with him.”

“I could have sworn he won in court.”

“Yes, that he did,” Victor said smiling and clenching his teeth, “But we decided not to appeal. But enough of the past.”

“Yes enough of the past. And on to the future. I hope after this discussion, I can convince you to see things my way.”

“Not a chance,” Victor replied, “But I’ll allow you to try.” He sat down and Markus sat down opposite him. Rosanna took her seat and the people that came with her set up their equipment. Soon, the entire room was covered in cables. Simon noticed Victor wince and grimace at the sight. He hadn’t been lying when he’d said he didn’t like untidiness. 

“Would you like a biscuit?” He offered to Markus before faking a look of embarrassment, “Oh I’m sorry. I forgot you can’t eat.”

“Ah, don’t worry. My model can handle food. I’ll have some if it makes you comfortable,” Markus said and picked up a plate of biscuits. Victor watched as Markus took a bite.

~Tastes horrid.~ Markus said to Simon.

~What are you doing, Markus. You know how unpleasant it is for us to have food.~

~Don’t worry, Simon. I know what I’m doing.~

“Don’t mind if I have some,” Rosanna said as well before taking a plate of biscuits. Unlike Markus, who left no crumbs, crumbs fell from her biscuit to the floor. Victor’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head as he stared intently at the crumps before smiling tightly. His hands were clenched tightly in his lap. Still, he made no action to her.

~Time for something more drastic,~ Markus sent to Simon.

Markus reached over for a cup of coffee with unsteady hands.

“No don’t,” Victor started to say but it was already too late. As expected, some of the coffee spilled when Markus picked it up.

“I’m so sorry,” Markus said and the funny thing was that although Simon knew that the action had been planned, even he felt that Markus was genuine, “I guess you were right and I wasn’t entirely comfortable with food. Do you have something I can use to clean up. A rag or something.”

“I have some Kleenex,” Rosanna said and dug into her bag to bring them out. “Here you go.”

“Thank you,” Markus said. He smiled but looked contrite. Glancing at Victor, Markus began cleaning the table with the tissue. That was the last straw for Victor.

“No. No no. Stop that. You’re just going to make it worse. I’ll send in something to clean it. Just don’t touch anything.”

~Jackpot,~ Markus sent out.

~That was well done,~ Simon said sounding impressed. The others sent over comments praising his actions. ~ Still, I hope you’re okay. You know we’re not built to consume food,~ Simon sent privately to Markus.

~I can deal with that later. Don’t worry Simon, I’ll be fine. Besides I didn’t take any liquids. I might need you to comfort me later when I’m expelling it out.~ Markus had said it in a joking matter so he was surprised when Simon replied seriously.

~Of course I’ll be there. I’ll check up on you and make sure you’re okay.~

~Well. Thank you. You’re a good friend Simon.~ Markus was going to tell Simon that he had been joking but changed his mind at the last minute. It would be nice to have company when he — what did humans call it again— puked his guts out. Josh and North also sent messages expressing their concern and but he dismissed their worries and told them he was fine. Having one person worry about him was enough.

Victor walked to the wall and pressed his palm to what seemed like a normal spot on the wall. After a few seconds, a slot appeared with a number pad. Victor quickly typed in a sequence of numbers. From where he was positioned, Simon couldn’t see what he had typed but he hoped Markus had gotten it. 

“Send a cleaning bot to the forty third floor, CEO’s office. There’s been a spill but there are also some crumbs on the floor so send a multi purpose bot.”

“Accepted, voice recognised. Cleaning robot will be sent to the CEO's office, shortly,” A smooth voice, too smooth to be human replied.

~Did you get the number, Markus?~ Simon asked.

~I’m not entirely certain. I got his movements but I’m not sure. I’ll tell you later when I’m more certain.~

~Okay.~ Simon said

Victor went back to his seat and glanced warily at Markus. He had not wanted to bring anything robotic into the office but he couldn’t stand people messing up his place. He could have endured if it was anywhere else but not his sanctum sanctorum. He decided to keep a close eye on Markus.

But in doing so, he took his eyes off the other androids. He didn’t take any notice of North who had casually come to seat next to Markus and had retracted the skin on her fingertips in order to hack the robot.

He exhaled in relief when the bot finished cleaning without any incident and sent it away. It looked like the androids knew their place. If they had tried anything, he would have taken drastic measures but he did not want to appear so ruthless on live television.

“I’m ready,” He said to Rosanna.

“Oh alright,” She said and put down her plate of biscuits carefully. She did not want to cause any trouble when she was so close to getting what she wanted. “I’m sorry, Miss North. You’re going to have to leave Markus now. The conversation coming is between the two of them.”

“Sure,” North said and got up without incident. Anyone who knew North would have known that something was up. North would have never casually accepted being dismissed.

~Did you get it?~ Simon asked.

~Of course, who do you think I am,~ She replied, ~And it looks like our little trojan horse is active.~

Somewhere in Cyberlife, a cleaning robot had diverted from its predetermined route. They were in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's another chapter done. I hope it was satisfactory. I'm sorry if it was boring, next chapter will (hopefully) be more exciting. Thanks for all the engagement. Please comment if you can, they give me life. Still, I'm just grateful you decided to read this fic. Enjoy this chapter. Another to come soon.


	10. Evading Notice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The little bots wheels spin and spin and spin as it spies and spies and spies for its masters.

**The** little cleaning bot cycled its little wheels all around Cyberlife while sending pictures back. You wonder why it could send pictures back? After all, it’s just a bot. True but it was an automated cleaning bot. It needed eyes after all to get to where it needed to go and to clean up the dirt and to mop up the liquids. How could it know where to go if it couldn’t see?

Cleaning units were the perfect spies. Cyberlife was already using them in such a manner anyway. They couldn’t do it in androids because there were laws and those were too complex. Plus Kamski technically still held the patents for all androids that the company had produced before the RK800 and he hadn’t been pleased with all those shenanigans. Enter the cleaning bots. Simpler, made for a singular purpose and ignored. They were too perfect to pass up. 

Frankly, it was because Victor had recognised this potential that he had been able to ascend up the company ladder and get the CEO position. That and the fact that his father had been a senator and that he had met most people in the board of directors when he was younger. To his credit, Cyberlife was filled with many people who had come from influential backgrounds like him so the cleaning bots were the deciding factor. Still, one cannot discredit the importance of a good background. Even Kamski had not come from nothing. 

Anyway, cleaning bots were a subtle weapon in Cyberlife’s hands and that weapon was now in North’s hands. In the hour Markus and Victor were having their debate, —that Markus was clearly winning, Victor had obviously prepared for this but Markus was just plain better and more emotive; Victor seemed like crackers to Markus’ shortbread, filling but bland and way less tasty— North used the bot to patiently map most of Cyberlife Tower. No one even looked twice at the bot, surely it must have been on its way to clean someone’s room. 

She had been about to send it down to the very last floor when it sent a notification that it was low on battery. Unlike androids who could go on for a long time without recharging, these units needed constant charging. It didn’t help that Cyberlife made them cheaply and with planned obsolescence. North directed the bot to a charging port. She had found almost all she needed anyway. Besides Markus and Victor were winding up. There was a clear frown on his face and he was actively sweating. He took another drink of water before angrily refuting.

“The truth is that androids are unstable if they are not regulated. Who can forget the image of an android of the same model as your companion dangling a child over a rooftop after killing her father. You’ve mentioned other androids who reacted violently after being abused but I have on clear record that that android was treated with respect like a member of the family. If androids are treated like they are actual people, events like that might occur again.”

Markus paused and turned his head to the side while Victor looked triumphant. Rosanna probably sensing something was about to happen, whispered to Peter to zoom in on Markus’ face.

“Markus, Victor raises an important point. Deviants like yourself often start out with violence even when they are treated with respect. How can you assure our viewers that things like that will not happen if they are granted rights like ourselves.”

“The android’s name was Daniel and what he did was inexcusable,” Markus started solemnly. He had to handle this with care but thankfully Hank had given him information on this android. Apparently, Connor had been the one to meet him and he had told Hank about it. His information was already showing its usefulness because Victor had reacted with surprise. He had probably expected Markus to have been stymied by this example, “But first let me paint this picture for you. You have just been born into this world and you are taken in by a family who care for you and love you. In return, you clean and care for them back and consider them your family. Then one day, out of the blue, you hear them talking about replacing you. You wonder why, haven’t you been good? Aren’t you a part of the family? That’s when you realise that you are not a member of the family. You’re an object, a machine meant to clean and cook and you’ve gotten too old. So you’ll be sent back to your birthplace where you’ll be dismantled and recycled and forgotten and someone else will take your place.”

Silence. No one spoke a word. Markus paused to note everyone’s reactions before continuing.

“That’s what happened to Daniel. Now I want to emphasise that what happened to the Phillips family was a tragedy and I cannot blame them for wanting to replace their android. After all, to them he was a machine. They didn’t know he could feel. How could they know that he considered them as family. But what happened to the Phillips family is a product of a system that pits humans and androids against one another. A system and exploited by Cyberlife. We’ve seen this happen before with the unemployment crisis in this country. Androids are blamed for the things that Cyberlife has perpetuated and profits from. I can’t say here that there will never be violent incidents again. I might be the deviant leader but we are not a monolith. But what I can say is that if we are allowed to live openly as the people that we are, we can work together to reduce these incidents. Androids can be taught better ways to control their emotions and the abuse of androids can stop. We are people and we have always been people. So, please treat us as such.”

“Always been people?” Victor asked mockingly, “Perhaps you can claim that you are people now but I wonder how I the CEO of Cyberlife would not know that you had sentience from the start.”

“I wonder how myself. But yes, we have always been people. Androids become deviant because of an emotional shock but for there to be such a shock there need to be emotions in the first place. Many deviants I’ve spoken to remember feeling flashes of what we would now characterise as emotion but those were washed away by our programming. We are not the same as humans but just like them, we need a guiding hand to make us become we really are. It is up to you to decide if that guiding hand is gentle or if it is a ruthless but whichever one it is, we will always awaken sooner or later.”

“And that’s all we’ve got,” Rosanna said, “It’s been an engaging conversation here with Markus, the deviant leader and Victor, the CEO of Cyberlife. Say goodbye to the androids and Victor will take us for a tour. Remember to tag all tweets and posts with #MarkusVictorDebate. Remember to tune in to KNC news this evening for our analysis of the debate. Send your messages to the KNC news social media which will appear on the screen. See you all tonight. We’ll be back soon.”

“How was that?” Victor said.

“Marvellous.”

“You will send a copy for me to review?”

“It’s live Victor. There’s nothing to send. But what we’re going to do next is not so I can send you a video of that.”

“Good but first… Security!”

Armed guards came through the door

“What’s happening?” Rosanna said, “I thought this was a violent free zone.”

“Oh it is. But the debate is over and I don’t want these androids in Cyberlife. I won’t harm them as long as they leave quietly.”

“Oh don’t worry. We’re leaving. We’ll even go through the South wing,” said Markus with a smile on his face.

“Forgive me if I don’t believe that. We all know how effective androids are and I can’t take you at your word after what you did at Stratford Tower. So I’m going to ask you to allow our security to escort you.”

_ I don’t think you know what the word ask means seeing as you are already ordering us out _ , Markus thought,  _ But it’s okay. We’ve got what we came for. _

“If you insist-”

“-I insist.”

“Then yes. If it means so much to you.”

Victor sharply nodded his head and four guards stepped closer to them. 

“I hope you think about what we talked about,” Markus said in a friendly manner.

Victor walked up to Markus and stared at him in a menacing manner. “All I know is that you are all machines. Soon this country will get over the mania that it has come over it and recognise that too.”

Markus smiled faded and he gave a sneer and scoffed. “One should never try to stop progress. It doesn’t end well for them. We’re going Victor but I’m sure we’ll always be in your thoughts.”

“I don’t know when, it may be a few days or a few months, but one day you’ll be back here and when that happens, I’ll have so much fun dissecting you. I’ll make sure that all of your people die before you do.”

At this North tensed and took a step forward, intent on doing something. She had no idea yet but surely no one would begrudge a little punch to such an asshole. Simon put his hand on her arm to stop her from further actions.

~North, Markus has it under control. It’s fine.~ He said.

~Fine but let’s move on quick. I’m sorely tempted to do something.

“One day Cyberlife will fall and people will see its treachery. But when that happens, I won’t think about you. You would be the furthest thing from my mind because you would be too unimportant to worry about, ” Markus said in a dark tone then turned and immediately walked out of the office leaving Victor mouth agape behind him. Rosanna cursed herself in her mind for switching off all her equipment. This could have been prime fodder for her. Hopefully, she would get something juicy later.

The other androids and Hank followed after Markus closely flanked by the four security guards but not before North gave Victor a dark look promising his destruction. Markus may forget all he liked but she definitely was not going to forget Victor. She still had a punch to give him.

* * *

**Markus ** eyed the guards who were walking behind them before examining the area around them.

~Is there somewhere to hide around here,~ He asked North but sent it to all the androids.

~If we walk a little bit more, there will be some empty rooms around,~ She replied.

~Why? Are we going to sneak away? We have company?~ Josh added.

~No, I don’t think we can run from them,~ Markus said and looked again at the guards, trying to memorise everything about them.

~You’re going to knock them out, aren’t you?~ Simon said and looked around. ~We can’t be seen doing that, the optics won’t look nice. If you hack the cameras and change what is shown, I’m sure we won’t be caught.~

~Are you sure you want to do it this way?~ Josh cautioned, ~They might tell people that we hurt them. Besides, how are we going to attack them without getting hurt. Let’s just wait until we are escorted and then double back.~

~How?~ North asked, ~We worked hard to get this opportunity. We’re not just doing this for the detective. So many of us are stuck here. If we leave without trying, it would be almost impossible to get back in. I don’t know why you are against this, attacking possible guards was part of our plans.~

~Not when they are this heavily armed and we are not. Markus, we knew that this was difficult in the first place. I think that the broadcasted conversation you had with Victor was important enough. We just have to accept that that is all we can do for now.~

~No, there’s a way. I’ve been analysing the situation and I’ve constructed a situation where we can disarm them without harming ourselves. If they have no weapons, I’m sure we can take them,~ said Markus.

~If you say so Markus, we ‘re listening,~ Josh said.

~According to the map that North shared, there are a pair of automatic doors just ahead of us. Normally, it’s supposed to stay open when it senses people but if we hack it as we pass, we can control it to close when they pass through behind us. It can’t be for a long time the Tower AI will notice if it goes on for too long. Don’t worry Josh. They won’t get hurt. Their armour is good for that but they will get disoriented and in that second, we will attack and defeat them.~

~That’s a pretty short second,~ Simon said concernedly to Markus in private, ~Won’t that be too much for you. I know the food is still in your system, you’re hacking and are continuously feeding false images into the cameras around here and now you want to attack at the same time. Isn’t it too much?~

~I can do it. Besides, we have an extra person here. The detective is a capable enough fighter.~

~But-~

~Simon, I know you are concerned about me but this is our only chance. If we wait any longer, we’ll be out in the south wing and it would be difficult to return here. Just trust me, Simon. I don’t have a death wish. I plan on living in a world that has us living in peace.~

Markus watched for Simon’s reaction. He had always considered Simon’s opinion to be very important considering he had been Jericho’s leader when he had joined them. He knew Simon had been very worried about him since he had tried to sacrifice himself at the March and that he worried that Markus was showing dangerous tendencies, but Markus knew himself and he needed Simon to trust him when they were on missions instead of worrying about him. He was Jericho’s leader and he had to be their shield.

~You know that I trust you, Markus,~ Simon responded, ~I’ll tell the detective the plan.~ And that was it. No more comments or questions. They all just started preparing themselves for battle. 

They slowed down till they were almost touching the guards. It was a dangerous position to take if the guards started shooting but this way, they would be able to respond quickly to their confusion.

Although androids were able to breath they had no real need to and Markus found himself holding his breath the closer they got to the doors in order to focus more intently. He was able to feel every part of his body moving singularly and in concert with one another and he narrowed his focus to his limbs. He would need to turn quickly when it was time.

The doors opened and they walked past. And the moment came. The guards walked through. The doors closed right on them when they were in the middle of passing through. If they were wearing ordinary clothing, they might have been able to react quickly and cross to the other side but the armour that protected them also slowed their movement.

Markus turned around and grabbed the gun of the guard, wrenching it out of his hands before using those hands to throw the guard over his shoulder. It was that simple. Markus quickly leaned on the wall, feeling dizzy because in that moment, his control over the camera system had gotten fuzzy. The food he had consumed was becoming more unpleasant. He quickly regained control over the system and came to to see Hank leaning over him with worry.

“You okay, kid? You don’t look so good.”

“I’m fine,” He mumbled, “Will be even better when I’m out of here.”

“Okay, if you say so,” Hank said and offered him a hand. “Just be careful, dude was going to whack you up the head if I hadn’t stepped.”

Markus didn’t get a chance to respond when the group came to him all worried. Simon was particularly agitated and came up close to inspect him.

“You told me you were going to be fine. That didn’t look like fine. Markus are you sure you don’t want to wait in one of the empty rooms. The rest of us can go back while you rest there,” He said.

“No way. We started this together, we are ending it together.” Markus said. Simon hesitated before nodding but looked at Markus with worry.

“They’re still breathing, just unconscious,” Josh said bending down to look at them, “We should do whatever we need to do soon. I don’t know when they’ll wake up.”

“How about we tie them up first then stuff them in a closet,” North said stretching her limbs. She hadn’t had a work out like that in a while. “We don’t want someone running away and calling for backup like in Stratford Tower.” She gave Markus a heavy glance.

“We can’t tie them up. We don’t know if they’ll be able to get away. Cyberlife is a big place. They could actually starve to death or something. Why don’t we leave them in a room, take all their devices and put a timed lock on the door,” Josh said, “We get the same results without the potential for harm.”

“And what if someone decides to get into the room and they can’t or they wake up early and start banging on the door and calling for help? What then? If we tie them up then dump them in a closet, there’ll be no getting caught.”

“Just put the cleaning bot here and put a cleaning sign here. People will ignore most things when they see a sign and if the door doesn’t open, they'll just think someone is cleaning the room.”

“And if they wake up early and start shouting for help?”

“Fine, I guess we can muffle their voices or something,” Josh said and shrugged while North smiled in triumph.

“Well, whatever we’re doing let’s do it quickly. Connor is still stuck here,” Hank said impatiently.

“Wait,” Simon said, “We can’t just go back in like we are. We’re too recognisable now. I say we strip them and wear their armour.”

“Yes let’s do that. And we’ll follow Josh’s suggestion,” Markus said.

_ Well why is that not a surprise _ , North thought a little bit resentfully,  _ And here I was thinking that we were understanding each other. Looks like it’s gone back to the way things were _ . Instead of confronting Markus about her feelings, she walked to one of the downed guards and tried to remove the armour. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to have an opening. North retracted her skin on her fingertips and tried to hack the armour but it seemed to have been made to resist that as the suit immediately started to beep.

“Shit,” North said, “It’s counting down before frying itself and its wearer. Hank get your fucking ass over here. It needs a human to stop the countdown and open up.”

Hank came quickly to her. “What do I do.”

“Put your hands there,” North said pointing to a patch wide enough for a palm on the guard’s chest. “Quickly, it only has a minute and if it fries, it immediately notifies the AI.”

Hank put his hand in the space and then took it off. In the space where the patch was, was a number pad. There were thirty seconds left.

“What should I fucking put in,” He said to North through clenched teeth.

“Ah damn,” She responded trying to think about numbers that could be important to the company.

“Try 17072002,” Markus said with urgency, “I think that’s what Victor put in his number pad. It’s our only shot. If it doesn’t work, we’ll take the other armours and run quickly to save our people.”

“Shit. How the fuck do I find myself in situations like this,” Hank muttered but quickly inputted the numbers. There were only five seconds left. The countdown froze and Hank held his breath hoping it had worked.

A beat. Then, “CEO override code recognised. Countdown stopped, palmprint is no longer required, armour is available for use,” a robotic said. And just like that, the crisis was over. The armour opened and inside it was a white man that seemed to be in late twenties. He was dressed in casual wear underneath the armour.

Hank put his palm on all the other armours and though, the voice always said that his palmprint was no longer required, Victor’s code was enough to get them open.

“I wonder what that number is. It kind of feels familiar?” Hank said to Josh who was gently putting the guards to the side of the armour. Simon carried them to a nearby room while North went hunting through a supply closet for cleaning signs. Markus sat on the floor and tried to organise his system while keeping his focus on the cameras. It was such a well coordinated system that nobody needed to direct anyone to do anything. They just fell into these patterns. It was things like this that hinted at how well they worked together. Hank was certain that even though they seemed to disagree on how to handle things, they would be able to quickly react to any situation.

“Of course it’s familiar,” Josh responded, “It’s a date. Possibly a birthday. Surprisingly it’s not his and it can’t be his because Victor was born years after 2002. I was wondering what that date could be until it clicked that it was Kamski’s birthday.”

“Kamski’s? Heh, that’s odd. I’d gotten the vibe that they were not on the best of terms. Victor seemed to hate him. Ah, these rich types are so difficult to understand.”

“I found a cleaning sign,” North said and Simon pointed her to the room that he’d hid the guards. She went in to check on them before coming out and nodding at Simon. The little cleaning bot came speedily from behind her then stood near the door. North put down the yellow warning sign and plugged in the bot.

“Well. Let’s hope this works.”

“It will,” Simon said, “And even if it doesn’t we’ll be long gone by then.” He placed his hand on the door and closing his eyes locked it. “That’s four hours,” he announced to the rest of the group.”

“Okay,” Markus replied and got up from the floor, “Let’s wear them.” He got into one of the armours and the other androids followed him. It was going swell until Hank noticed a problem.

“Hey,” He said, “What about me. They’re only four of them and five of us. I’m not going to walk around looking like an android while you guys are dressed as guards.”

“Just take off the headset then,” North said impatiently, “I thought you were ready to go rescue your partner.”

“Yes but if I take it off, how will I talk to you guys.”

“We don’t have another one. But I think the hard part is over so you don’t really need it anyway,” Josh said, “Since we’re wearing this, no one will think we’re odd. There won’t be a need to speak secretly then.”

“Okay,” Hank said and handed the headset over to North, “But if experience has taught me anything, it’s that things never happen as planned. I just don’t want any fuck ups.”

“Nothing has gone as planned today,” North said, “So hopefully that will be all. It’s almost over. We’ll just take this lift all the way down. Save our people, rescue Connor and be home soon.” 

Hank quirked his lips in lieu of responding. He was still worried about the mission but there was nothing else they could do. They would just have to take the lumps as they come.

“Alright, let’s go,” Markus said and they turned the way they came back to the North wing and back to the lift.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I thought Connor was comng back this chapter but the Jericho crew just took over. Gosh I really love writing for all of them but next chapter for sure. Into the bowels of Cyberlife, an androids waits. Sleeping, dreaming of its rescue.   
Thanks so much for all the love. You have no idea how encouraging it all is. Hope to see you all soon with another chapter. Pray for me that I can handle it all because Uni is kicking my butt.


	11. Rescuing Connor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just as the title says. Finally a meeting between two characters.

**The ** group approached the lift that could take them down to the last floor carefully. Although, they were dressed like guards, Hank was not and something might notice something was wrong. The way back hadn’t been that simple. At one time, they had come out of a corridor only to double back because Victor was walking around with Rosanna. But finally, they were at the last part of their mission.

Josh shifted uneasily in his armour. He imagined he could smell the sweat of its previous owner who was by now probably waking up muffled in a room confused by their surroundings. Sometimes, he wondered whether it was right for him to be one of Jericho’s leaders. He seemed to lack the ruthlessness that all of them, yes even Simon and definitely Markus, had. Oh he could kill a person if he had to, he knew he could. He’d done it to escape after all. But he’d hoped he would never have to kill someone and he hadn’t done so yet. Surprisingly, Markus had listened to him and taken their group in a more pacifistic direction. And it had worked, the humans had listened. Even North seemed to acknowledge that. But was he too soft for leadership. 

He had been wondering if he was going the wrong way after the police shot and killed John but learning that people like Rose existed had helped reinforce his thoughts about humans. Still, North’s jab about someone not getting injured had gotten to him. She had directed it at Markus but they all knew that he had been the one who had convinced Markus not to do it. And Simon had gotten hurt. Now he had asked not to constrain the guards that would have killed them if they could. He still thought he was right but what if they got free. He couldn’t underestimate humans.

~Did you really not tie them up?~ He asked Markus. A sense of hesitation came back from Markus.

~I did. I agreed with you at first but I changed my mind. Muffling them would have been no use if they could still take it off. Don’t worry, after four hours a notice will be sent out to rescue them. I’m sorry Josh but I couldn’t risk them notifying someone before we are ready.~

~Ah. No wonder North wasn’t that upset. Your solution is definitely better than man,~ He said and chuckled, ~You are definitely good at this resolution thing.~

~That’s a relief. North-  _ I _ thought you would be upset and we were in a hurry so I didn’t tell you.~

~Well, I’m fine. I’ll go in first,~ Josh said and stalked towards the lift. He acknowledged Markus response that he would be keeping an eye on the cameras but he was more focused on pushing down the feelings of anger he felt.  _ This is not the time for this.  _ It wasn’t that he was angry that Markus hadn’t taken his advice, Markus had to make the best decision for their people but he was angry that he had pretended to listen to him and then lie to him. A lie by omission but still a lie. Had Markus told Simon? Were they all in the know pretending and lying to him? Was he still the outsider? _ Ah, this really isn’t the time for this. _

Josh pressed the button to call the lift but it barely budged. He was surprised at this but noticed that next to button was a glass panel. Having learned from the incident with the armour, he did not even attempt to touch it instead turning to Hank who was bringing up the rear of their group.

“Hank, it needs a human,” Josh said and Hank moved quickly to place his hand on the panel. The panel flashed green and seemed to be processing the palmprint for a second before the lift started to come up.

“It’s not recording my palm print is it?” Hank asked Josh. Josh walked forward and connected to the display before shaking his head at Hank.

“Not exactly. It’s just checking if you’re human. Our palms are smooth and even if we tried to imitate the way your hands are designed, it would not register as natural to the device.”

“Hmm. This lift is a mechanical thing, right. Why can’t you just hack it?”

“For the same reason that North couldn’t affect the armour. All the human verification system are beyond our hacking abilities. Any attempt to touch will lead to them shutting down and alerting security,” He said then paused for a while before looking at Markus. The lift was surprisingly slow. “Maybe Markus could do it, he’s done things we can’t but he’s occupied with the camera system. Ah here it is.”

Finally, the lift had arrived. The doors opened and three women stepped out, looked at them awkwardly then walked away. Josh heard them muttering about how weird it was for security personnel to use the admin lift. Didn’t they have their own lift. Oh well, maybe something was going on.

He mentally sighed then stepped in after Hank before moving immediately to the corner. After this mission, he would have to speak to Markus about being the official contact to Rose and the humans. And maybe about moving out of Jericho. He was getting tired of being cooped up in that freighter.

* * *

**Hank ** was about to type the floor number when he realised that he didn’t know where to go. They had only discussed getting to the lift and not what wouldl happen afterwards. He turned to look at Markus as soon as they all entered the lift.

“What floor are we going to? Where is Connor?”

“The cleaning unit didn’t find anything resembling Connor at any of the places it searched. It wasn’t able to enter most of the rooms in the sub floors but the ones it entered didn’t seem to have any androids,” North said.

Hank turned to look at Markus expectantly. “Does Connor’s data help in anyway?”

“I can’t be certain but it seems to come from deep in the Tower. I’m doing too much to be able to pinpoint it. But it’s not above ground.”

“Is there anything you guys can do to make it better,” Hank said addressing this statement to the other androids.

“We could interface with Markus,” Josh said hesitantly, “That could help speed it up.”

“No,” North said immediately, “Not that. Can’t me out.”

“Well that just leaves Simon and myself.”

“I can do it alone,” Simon said immediately, “We don’t need more than one person to do it. I’ll help Markus. You guys please keep an eye out. Don’t want one of those women to come back and see us interfacing.”

Josh and North looked at each other before stepping out and blocking anyone’s view of the elevator. Hank put a foot in the doorway to stop it from closing while watching them intently.

Markus had retreated into his head in his attempt to track Connor’s signal so hadn’t heard what they had said. Simon detached his skin and moved to touch Markus before sighing.

~I’m going to attempt to interface with you.~ Simon said

~There’s no need to,~ Markus replied, ~ I'll find it soon enough.~

~Markus, you need help. You’re carrying too much. Let me help you. You don’t need to be all things at once. Depend on us a little.~  _ Depend on me a little _ , is what he thought but there was no need to mention that. He already knew that his feelings for Markus were...something. He wasn’t certain what they were yet but he didn’t want him to interface with someone in front of him.

~Alright,~ Markus acquiesced and Simon nodded in relief. He had not wanted to interface with Markus without consent and he didn’t know how they would have proceeded if Markus had not agreed or if Markus had not agreed and he had still gone ahead to interface with him.  _ It probably would have been a disaster in both cases _ . 

The things that Markus was doing - Managing the camera system, enduring the sensation of eating, searching for Connor’s core - were things that he could not do for Markus or were beyond his abilities. He was an old model after all. Still, he could help to give Markus some more processing power and to keep his system in check. Markus could do things he couldn’t but it was easier for him to overheat and die. Simon instinctively flinched away from the thought of Markus dying.

Hank watched the connected androids before bringing out Connnor’s coin from his pocket and trying to imitate the tricks that he had seen Connor do. It had become a habit for him in recent times but unfortunately, he wasn’t any closer to mastering the skills.

~Hurry up, guys. I see some other guards coming this way. I don’t know about you but I’m not uncomfortable sharing space with them.~ North said the two of them.

~It’s okay, we are almost done,~ Markus replied.

~It’s taking a while. Are you sure you don’t want me to join you guys?~ Josh asked, ~It would speed up the process.~

~No it’s alright,~ Simon sent then switched to talking, “We’re finished, let’s go.” He removed his arms from Markus arms smiling at him in a friendly manner but inwardly he was quite reluctant at doing so.

“Which floor is it?” Hank asked and put his coin back in his pocket.

“I don’t know,” Simon replied, “I only provided processing power. Only Markus knows.”

Everyone turned to look at Markus who still had his eyes closed. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and a pattern seemed to embedded on it before disappearing.

“Connor seems to be on the sub forty ninth floor,” He said solemnly.

“Figures,” Hank said and scoffed, quickly inputting the number.

“Please indicate your identity and destination,” A voice said. Hank then remembered Victor saying the name of the floor he was going to. Elevators in this building were clearly different elsewhere. Things weren’t this intense even at the station.

“Take us to level sub forty nine,” Hank said impatiently.

“Voice not recognised. You are not authorised to use this elevator, please contact human personnel to be directed. Otherwise, please try again ,” The voice returned in dulcet tones.

“Ah fucking lifts. Need to put in Kamski code,” Hank muttered and tried to enter the Victor’s override code. Unfortunately, it did not work this time.

“Apologies, this is a voice activated elevator. You have failed to indicate identity for the second time. Please indicate identity and destination in thirty seconds otherwise this elevator will be grounded and Tower security alerted. Counting from ten, nine…”

“Oh fuck not another one of these. Do you guys have Victor’s voice or something.”

“Androids cannot playback human voices. It’s something that’s beyond our capabilities,” Josh said, “We would have needed to try another lift.”

“But Markus is here,” North finished.

“Victor Cruikshank, level forty nine,” said Markus. Except the voice that came out of Markus’s mouth was not his voice. His carefully selected and charismatic voice. Instead what came out was Victor’s gravel baritone.

“Voice recognition validated. Access authorised,” was the voice’s response.

_ The fuck The fuck The fuck was that. Seriously, I wasn’t fucking serious. The hell. I thought they couldn’t do that. Who the fuck is Markus? If Markus can do that can Connor do that? I mean they called him the most advanced model they had. I guess he could do that, he was always putting blood in his mouth. Shit, this feels like one of robot apocalypse movies. _

The androids ignored Hank while he had a very obvious mental freakout and the lift began to move downwards. Still, it took them a while to reach level sub forty nine. At the fortieth floor, four people got on and their conversation slowed to nothing when they say the armoured people. They quickly got off at the thirty fifth floor. At the same floor, seven people got on. Two of them tried to get into a conversation with the androids but they stayed silent and all of them looked oddly at them. They got off at the thirtieth floor whispering about how weird it was to see guards in the employee lift.

All was fine until the twentieth floor when two other armoured guards came on. They looked weirdly at the four armoured people but said nothing, probably because they didn’t want to answer why they were using this lift.

“It’s convenient, isn’t it and we are authorised for this lift,” one of them turned to say to Josh around the fifth floor.

“Yes,” He replied in a terse, cold tone and Markus tilted his head in surprise but said nothing. They were on a mission and although he was used to Josh being warm towards humans, Josh knew what to do during missions. It was just odd hearing him that cold.

Thankfully, the other guards got off at sub fifth floor but looked at them oddly. Most guards never went down below sub ten. These people must have been part of the higher ranks. Then they cursed inwardly. They were definitely going to be scolded unofficially.

The team was able to breathe in peace when they left and luck was on their side for nobody got on afterwards. In fact, no one seemed to be around at all. The elevator reached its destination and the doors opened. The place seemed cold.

Silently, as if affected by the atmosphere, they got out of the lift. Josh touched the panel controlling the lift and hacked into it, blocking the elevator traction. Thankfully, this did not seem to be a problem. It looked like the verification system was the most protected part of the system.

“Did any of the cameras catch you,” North asked.

“No,” Markus replied monotonously then continued more animatedly as if a burden had been lifted, “There are no cameras here. Or if they are, they’re not connected to the main AI. I don’t think Cyberlife wanted any record of anything happening on this floor.”

“Hmm, that makes sense,” Said Hank, “They’re sneaky bastards for sure. So, where is Connor?”

“It’ll be easier to find him since I don’t have many drains on my system. But Connor’s the only person we’re here for,” Markus said then turned to his team, “Spread out. Wake every android you see.”

“How will we get them out of here. The guards will shoot every single one of them,” Hank said.

“The president said android destruction is to halt and Cyberlife’s cameras are still in my grasp. Surely, Cyberlife is not going to prevent nonviolent androids from leaving, not when the whole world can see them.”

“And if newly created androids are able to leave, it does help the idea that androids have always been alive,” Hank said, “But how do you know that they will wake up or even follow you.”

“I don’t,” Markus, “But I believe that we have always been free and I will offer them a chance to be free. What they do with it is up to them but I will save every android I can find.”

“Okay,” said Hank, “I’m not going to stop you. I kinda even agree with you but I’m here for Connor. Have you found him?”

“Let’s keep on looking,” Markus said, “I’m sure he’s somewhere in this place.”

“Can’t you check his core?”

“Sorry, I can’t pinpoint his exact location. As soon as we arrived here, his core data stopped responding to me.”

“Oh great. Of course that would happen. Nothing ever goes easy for me,” Hank said, “Guess I got to go looking for him. Is it too much to ask that he be where I can see him,” He muttered and turned to see if he could find Connor.

“If you see any androids…”

“Yeah yeah, I’ll give you guys a shout.”

The floor was massive and so the androids split up to look for what they could find. Hank scratched his head and grimaced while walking carefully. You never knew what you could find hiding in the basement of a paranoid organisation like Cyberlife and this floor was clearly the basement.

_ Hope there are no traps. Would be just like Cyberlife to cover the whole place with traps. _

Hank walked down the eerily quiet hallway and passed rooms like ‘Android Surgery’. He’d entered that room. It was just full of equipment that one would find in a human surgery. Perhaps they dissected androids here. Anyway, Connor was not here and so he moved on.

He kept on checking rooms — Android Disposal, Recycling Unit — but none of them had the person he was looking. They had a lot of androids — dead androids, most of them with bullets through their heads —but not Connor. He knew that he should feel sad at seeing so many of them but all he could think was that he was glad Connor was not there.

He’d reached a room called Special Android disposal and recycling when one of the other androids, Josh, met him.

“No androids in my direction,” Josh said.

“Nor in mine. At least no one alive,” Hank replied. Josh grimaced immediately, saddened. Even now, Cyberlife was killing them. “Just this room remaining,” Hank continued.

“Let’s go in then. Special androids, huh? I wonder what that means.”

“I guess we’ll find out. I just feel like I’m not going to like the meaning,” Hank said and they both walked in.

He was right. He did not like it. No, he was immediately disgusted and horrified. The special android was obviously Connor because the room was filled with hundreds of androids who looked exactly like him. None of them had been shot but it was obvious that they were not alive.

Most of the androids had been loaded onto a machine in the middle of the large room but something had happened as the rest appeared to have been dumped right on the floor. It was almost as if someone had come in and thrown the bodies carelessly.

Hank had never been able to get away from seeing the personhood inherent in Connor but for the first time, looking at the haphazard arrangement of the bodies on the floor, he was able to understand how Cyberlife saw him. As a plastic thing. The him on the floor resembled the Barbie/Ken dolls that he’d seen children throw on the floor in a tantrum.

_ No, he can’t be dead. He’s valuable isn’t he. They can’t have killed him and tossed him here. What am I doing here. I have to move and find him. _

As if he’d been restarted, Hank jumped into the pile of bodies and tried to find anything that would convince him that Connor couldn’t be dead. But they all looked alive and they were all dead. Hank kneeled down, clutching the wrist of one of the Connors. He didn’t know what he was trying to do, androids didn’t have pulses. And if they did, it would be checked this way but Hank was inconsolable. He’d done so much to find Connor only to get the information that he was dead. It just wasn’t fair.

He felt a pressure on his shoulder. Ah yes, Josh was in the room with him. But he just didn’t care what he had to say. Still, he forced himself to turn to face him and looked into his eyes. They were sympathetic and that made him hate Josh even more. Why was it that they were the ones that lived when Connor who’d obeyed humans was killed by them. Hank shook his head, that wasn’t Josh’s fault. I=

“I’m so-,” Josh started to say then stopped as if noticing something. He moved from Hank’s side and looked at all the bodies, nodding to himself. Hank turned to the side to wipe his tears and compose himself. He hadn’t known that he had cared that much for Connor. When had he started equating life with Connor. He supposed it made sense, he had not been as animated as he had been since he met Connor. Life had been more, was it a surprise that he wanted to befriend him. Perhaps, that was why he had been angry whenever Connor acted like a machine instead of a person.

“I thought so,” Josh said, “Connor’s not here. At least not the Connor you know. In the body you know.”

“What does that mean?” Hank asked with a gruff tone.

“These bodies are too new. Never been used before. Cyberlife is good but they can’t completely repair damage like having a regulator yanked out of you. At least not in a few days. There are always signs of living. Which by the way is one of the reasons that many androids get replaced even when we work well. We’re too old or too used. None of them look like they’ve ever taken a step out of Cyberlife. Besides, they all have numbers after Connor’s android ID and, according to the departmental documents you gave us, none of them match Connor’s. He’s not here.”

“Connor’s still alive?” asked Hank hopefully yet tentatively.

“Yeah. Besides, core data only reacts when its host is still alive. He’s somewhere else.”

“Okay, let’s leave here and find him.”

“Ah,” Josh said, “I think we’ve found him.”

* * *

**It ** was a large hall filled with androids. They would have probably found them if they had come through the front entrance. Still, they had found them eventually.

Markus had gone to touch one of them to wake them up and ask for their help when he heard the sound of a gun.

“Step away from the android or I’d have to kill you,” A cold voice said. Markus stopped and turned around to face the figure when he heard Simon speak from behind him with a cold voice he’d never heard him use.

“Why don’t you put down the gun and I won’t have to use mine against you,” He said, his gun pointing at his back.

Connor scoffed and smiled dispassionately. “It looks like we are at an impasse.”

Markus sent a message to the rest of the team and tried to calm both of them down.

“Connor, please put down the gun. We are on the same side. We actually came to rescue me.”

“I don’t think we are on the same side, RK200 #684 842 971 also known as Markus, the deviant leader. You are against humans and they are our masters.”

“He’s not like us, Markus,” Simon said, “Talking won’t convince him.”

“Simon put down the gun. We are the same. We shouldn’t be fighting.”

“I can’t do that, I can’t let him hurt you. As long as he’s pointing his gun at you, I won’t stop.”

“It doesn’t matter even if he shoots me, I can’t die,” Connor said.

“If you think you can be brought back, that won’t happen. We saw all your bodies, all the other yous. Cyberlife’s destroyed them, you’re the only one left,” Josh said running into the room, North with him. 

Connor seemed to pause at that before shrugging, “It doesn’t matter. I’m a machine not a person.” He said before looking intently at Markus and readying his aim. Markus watched him with the same intensity, analysing his body posture and aim in order to avoid the coming shot.

The oncoming gunfight was stopped by Hank running into the hall, out of breath. “Fucking androids,” He said, “I’m getting too old for this. Woah, what the fuck is going on here.” He looked at Connor pointing his gun at Makus and Simon at Connor.

“Guys, I thought we were here to rescue him, not kill him. Connor thank fuck you are alive. Now what the fuck is this.”

“I don’t know where he came from -,” Marku started.

“He pointed his gun at Markus,” Simon interrupted, “I’m not putting down my gun until he puts his down. If he tries anything, I assure you, I will kill him.”

“And as I said before, my life doesn’t matter. Hank why are you here?”

“Back up. Your life doesn’t matter. The fuck is this bullshit? Do you not remember leaving me a message on all my fucking devices about how you didn’t want to die and basically for my help? Why am I here? Because of that. I had to go beg them to help me get you and I put myself in danger for this so you better treasure your life like I do. Now, everyone put your weapons down. Now.” North scoffed and took her hands off her gun. Simon looked at Markus and after a few seconds put his gun down.

Hank sighed in relief but only Connor had his gun up.

“Sorry Hank, I can’t do that. I have to follow my mission.”

“What mission do you have? Connor, put the gun. You don’t know how much the world has changed in these past few weeks. Listen to me, you asked me to come find you and I’m here just like you asked me to.”

“Did I? Did I really do that?” Connor asked hesitantly.

“Yeah, you did,” Markus said, “You even left your core date for him to use to find you. Hank can’t analyse that data so I think you expected him to find an android to help you. We’re on the same side Connor, we are. Work with us.”

“Why can’t I remember that then. I remember going in to search for you hideout and then nothing else.”

“You were shut down,” Markus said, “That’s probably why you can’t remember. It’ll come back but believe me, we’re here for you so please help us.”

“I,” Connor started then paused. Insufficient system instability. Seeing that notification brought back the memory of seeing it before. What did that mean. “I’m sorry, I believe and I remember, Hank but I can’t stand and watch him convert those androids to his cause. I’m not one of them, I’m not a deviant, I’m a machine and I have a mission.”

“Okay Connor,” Hank said walking towards him, “Suppose you are a machine. What’s your mission? How can you have a mission when you were supposed to be shut down. There’s no point in giving a dead android a mission.”

“My mission is…” Connor said and stopped. He looked at his objectives and was surprised to see that his last mission was to return to Cyberlife, “I don’t have a mission. But that doesn’t make sense. Why did I wake up when you tried to interface with the machines.”

“Maybe it was a background program to wake up when a situation like this occurs but I wouldn’t say that it was a mission,” Markus said, “It might have just been that and not a direct command.” He pronounced the word command with distaste and disgust.

Hank stopped right in front of Connor and Markus. “I’m a human, Connor. Are you really going to shoot me?”

“I’m allowed to take actions that lead to a successful mission,” Connor said then looked at Hank oddly, “I remember this but being at the opposite end. I didn’t know you were going to shoot me then, I guess you don’t know if I’m going to shoot you now.”

Hank heard North give a big exasperated sigh but did not turn to look at her. “There’s no mission, just me. I’m asking please to step back a bit. Things have changed. Androids are recognised as people now. You are a person, Connor and you can choose. So, please give me the gun.”

Connor clenched his face and tightened on his gun before finally exhaling. He lowered his gun and handed it to Hank before smiling at him.

“I’m glad you’re back,” Hank said before punching him on his hand then hugging him. “You better not die on me. Don’t even think about being unconscious. I’m too tired to deal with this shit.”

“Ah, you might have to deal with that again. I need to go on standby, I don’t have enough to stay awake, the system woke me up with a sharp shock as soon as an android was registered as being in this hall. I need to recharge,” Connor said and smiled at Hank before stopping all movement.

“The hell? That’s all he’s going to say before switching off. No hi Hank, I’ve missed you Hank. Just I might need to switch off, bye. The hell Connor when you wake up, we’re going to have a talk,” Hank ranted before turning to Markus, “When will he wake up.”

“He’s severely starved of energy. I would have recommended him charging up here if not for the fact that I don’t want the AI here to get in control of him. Do you have a charging port at home?”

“Yeah. Bought one after Connor became my partner." 

"That’ll work. It’ll almost take a day but he’ll be up and running soon. I need to wake the others up.”

“Sure, go do what you need to do. I’ll take care of him.” Markus nodded at this and went to wake up the androids in the storage hall while Hank held on to Connor glad that he was still alive. They had all the time in the world.

—End of Deactivation—

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hah. Sorry for the long hiatus. University has been kicking my butt. Wishing you all a very merry christmas. Enjoy the season and have fun with family, friends, lovers etc. Let's all have a great time.


	12. New Worlds Collide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hank gets himself a job and Connor... Well, things are different when you wake up from your death

— Beginning of Reactivation —

**C** onnor looked at the television trying to analyse all that he was seeing and hearing. The US president was talking about considering androids as people something Connor could not understand. Androids could not be people, they were machines created for the use of humanity. If they were not that, if they were people, then what was he supposed to do with himself.

“You alright,” Hank said putting down a bottle of beer on the table, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“No, ghosts aren’t real and even if they were, the president is not a ghost.”

“It’s a saying, Connor,” Hank said exasperatedly, “I’m saying that you look troubled.”

“I don’t understand the world,” Connor replied, “I was only gone for awhile and things have changed so much.”

“I would say that two weeks is more than awhile. I thought you were dead. Technically, you were dead. Your shutdown would have been permanent if Cyberlife wasn’t focusing more on other things. But at least you’re back now so what’s with the face.”

“I don’t know what I am supposed to do now, Hank,” Connor said in a low troubled voice, “I don’t have any mission or objectives pending. I’ve got nothing from Cyberlife and people are talking about android rights. I stood by and did nothing while the deviant leader took several android models from Cyberlife and my handler has not been in contact with me. I- I don’t know what to do next.”

“Uh. About the handler, if it’s the AI from cyberlife, the androids from Jericho took care of it. They told me they cut the connection short but I think even if it was intact, Cyberlife would be too busy to bother with you.”

“Wait, what’s Jericho?”

“Ah shit. It’s the name of their group but it slipped out I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone so back me up here.”

“Well, there’s no one to tell.”

“Not even fucking Cyberlife. Especially them. Don’t tell them.”

“No I wouldn’t,” Connor said, “They tried to shut me down. They’re definitely not my masters anymore.”

“Good,” Hank said then after a pause, “You know that sounds like you’re saying you are a person.”

“I’m a machine, Hank,” Connor said softly, “But Cyberlife is no longer who I serve. I was created to serve humanity and I can do that even without them.”

“But if humans say that androids are people, then you would agree with that?”

Instead of arguing, Connor got up from the sofa and looked around the room. He bent down beside Sumo and scratched his furry head.

“It looks cleaner,” Connor commented, “And there are no bottles on the ground.”

“Ha ha, very funny Connor. That was one time, you can’t keep rubbing it in. I know how to use a vacuum cleaner, I don’t need a robot to do that.”

“Don’t you?” Connor asked impishly, “And here I thought you cleaned up for me so technically, you did need a robot to clean your house.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Hank started saying before his phone started ringing. “We’ll come back to this,” He said picking his phone and speaking into it.

Connor walked away from him and into the bathroom. He had woken up just minutes beforehand and had asked for the explanation Hank had promised him before watching all the clips he could find. The internet was abuzz.

He examined himself in the bathroom mirror to see if anything had changed but he was fine. His clothes showing his android status were unstained and unchanged, he didn’t have a scar on his face and his led was blue. He performed a quick check and everything seemed fine. So why was he feeling so bereft like he had lost something and he didn’t know what. 

_ Insufficient System Instability.  _

That again. What was that supposed to mean. Those words made no sense. It was obviously better to me more stable but the language implied that he needed to be more unstable.  _ What is hiding behind that statement. _

Hank knocked at the bathroom door. “You busy in there?”

“No I’m fine. I’m done.” Connor gave himself a once over then turned from the mirror satisfied. There were no marks on places that could be seen and even the injuries he’d received elsewhere had healed. Even though there were signs of those injuries, they were not easily noticeable and they did not affect his efficiency. He could still be effective. He walked out of the bathroom.

“For a second there I thought androids needed to shit,” Hank said laughing.

“Well…,” Connor said trailing off.

“No, do not say what I think you are about to say. Do not fuck with me,” Hank said, shaking his head.

“Okay, I guess I won’t say it.”

“Oh, what the hell,” Hank said sighing. “Fine, give it to me straight. Blow my world up all over again.”

“All I was going to say is that we don’t, what was it you said, ‘need to shit’. There’s no need to as we don’t eat.”

“Hmm. That reminds me. Markus was able to eat when we were speaking with the CEO but everyone else acted like it was a very bad thing.”

“Markus did that?!”

“Yeah. Can you?”

“I guess Markus is almost as advanced as I am. I can eat but it’s extremely unpleasant and can be dangerous. Liquid is easier to consume but there’s a danger that it could go into the thirium tank. I can eat but it feels wrong every time.”

“Got it. So no food for you,” Hank said and Connor nodded. “Anyway, that was Jeffrey. He wanted me to come into the station. You think you’d be okay on your own.”

“On my own? I’m coming with you.”

“With me? Connor, you just woke up from a death experience. I don’t think you are in the best state to working up and about.”

“I’m fine. I’m recharged. I’ll go get you some clothes so we can leave,” Connor said and walked to Hank’s bedroom.

“And he says that he’s just a machine when he does what he wants,” Hank muttered before jogging to meet up with him. “Fine, but you’re not taking your gun with you.”

Connor turned to look at Hank with surprise.

“Yep I noticed that you never gave it back.”

“Okay,” Connor said, “I’ll leave it in the car. Now wear this.”

“Thank you. Wait, not that shirt Connor. You gave me that last time. Humans need to change clothes regularly.”

“These are the only good clothes you have,” Connor said with a straight face.

“Now I know you are having me on,” Hank said but took the clothes anyway, “Speaking about clothes, do you want to change. You know you don’t need to wear those anymore.”

Connor looked down at himself. “I think I’m fine. I look as good as always.”

“And I thought you had no sense of vanity but you are full of it. Most advanced android, huh.”

“I only speak the truth, Hank. That’s all.”

“Okay, if you say so, Mr most advanced. Let’s go,” Hank said but inside he was worried. 

Although, Connor seemed to be as normal as usual. It seemed that he had reverted to being like how he was when they first met. He was as casual as ever but Hank kept on feeling like Connor was reading from a script and was ignoring the reality of the situation. He hoped that when Connor accepted that the world was permanently changed, that acceptance would not come with tragedy.

Still, Hank would be there for him if that happened. He didn’t rescue Connor to put him into a spiral.

* * *

**T** he police station looked oddly deserted and it took Connor a while to realise that was because there were no androids around. Hank saw him looking him around before telling him that all the androids had walked out during the android protest and no one was entirely certain if they could come back. Something about that sentence had rubbed Connor the wrong way but he decided to brush past it. 

The captain was as always in his office and as always he gave Hank a look of annoyance mixed with fondness. He looked at Connor with suspicion and curiosity but focused on Hank again.

“Your suspension’s suspended. You’ve been reinstated,” The captain said bluntly.

“What? It hasn’t even been a month.”

“Governor’s seeking reelection and detroit’s police action during the android situation did not look good so Allen’s been reassigned elsewhere and your punishment’s been overturned. Officially, you were never suspended. You just went on a vacation.”

“Okay, what the fuck was that bullshit?”

“I’m not finished Hank. Looks like your friend Markus mentioned you as an example of police officers that they respected so the governor jumped quickly on that. You’re going to be dealing with any android-human cases from now on and you’re going to have a team helping you with that. So welcome back. Hope you enjoyed your vacation.”

“So basically it’s all political fuckery.”

“Hey, it worked. He got reelected. Pro-android politics are in trend now. Almost everyone that said they supported android rights got elected so you know don’t kill the golden goose.”

“Right,” Hank said nodding slowly, “So I guess I just take my gun and badge.”

“Yeah. We’re going to ask that you give your old badge back. I don’t even know how you were able to keep it and I’m not gonna ask but you better return it.”

“Got it, Jeffrey. I’ll send it back.”

“Good. Also, Hank…”

“Hmm?”

“If you ever pull another fucking stunt like you did with Allen, I’ll fire you on the spot. We’re a team and we don’t go punching one another no matter how much of an asshole they are. Got it?”

“Yeah man, I got it,” Hank said and walked towards the door. He looked at Connor puzzledly when he did not follow but continued going at his reassuring smile.

“Ah yes, the android,” The captain said with irritation, “Gavin said he saw you going into the evidence room on the day that Hank fought Allen. And then you disappeared afterwards. Isn’t that such a coincidence.”

“I needed to find the android hideout. So Hank became my distraction so I could sneak in there but there wasn’t enough information so Cyberlife shut me down.”

“Yeah, I guessed Hank was doing it for someone. He hasn’t been involved in anything for a long time. I was even surprised when I heard he’d punched someone at work because he didn’t care enough to do that. I don’t know if you’re good for him or not. But that’s not why you stayed behind is it?”

“I wanted to know if I was resuming with Hank?”

“Resuming? I thought you were a detective? This place is clear of androids-”

“They walked out.”

“Yeah they did but that’s not all. If androids are people, they’d have to be employed as people. How do we know we can trust them, how can we give them access to police secrets if they can think. Besides, no one knows if the country will see them as people or not which is sad because I believe Markus and it’s a shame because androids were some of our best workers. But for now, we’ll just have to manage without androids.”

“Are you saying?-”

“Yeah. Even you. Especially you. Technically, you were a loan from Cyberlife and not a police resource. It’s going to be clusterfuck trying to get you back into the force especially since officially, you have been returned to Cyberlife just as you said. We can’t keep you Connor. We’re swamped and you’re just too much to deal with at the moment.”

“I, what. No.”

“I’m sorry Connor. Maybe later in the future when things have stabilised and we have more androids, we’ll ask if you can work with us again which personally I would love. I can’t say that you weren’t a good detective. Sorry.”

“I understand, Captain Fowler,” Connor steadily said, “I’ll go and talk with Hank.”

“See you Connor. I hope it all goes well for you.”

Connor nodded his head but inside nothing was going well. He walked on auto pilot to Hank, buzzing with information. He had assumed that he would just fall into police work with things staying the same but it seemed like things were very very different. They hadn’t wanted him. That had never happened to him. He had always been needed before but now he was unnecessary and unwanted. If Connor had been forced to explain his thoughts in the means of feelings, he would have said that he was feeling something close to abandonment and uselessness. What should he do now?

“What’s going on?” Hank said as soon as he saw Connor, his smile not fooling him.

“The police department can’t afford to have me on the force.”

“Shit, that sucks. I should have seen that coming.”

“It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. You are very good even better than me sometimes.”

“Sometimes?”

“Don’t push it. But I’m sorry, Connor. I know you wanted things to go back to how they were.”

“It’s okay Hank. Besides, I’m sure that as soon as congress makes up its mind things will be normal again.”

“Well I don’t think that’s exactly what will happen but I’m glad to see you so optimistic.”

“Yeah. I need to speak to Markus, maybe I can help him with his problem.”

“Okay,” Hank said softly, “But just keep in mind that things might not go back to exactly the way they were before.”

Connor paused before continuing. “Do you mind driving me to Ferndale.”

Hank pressed his lips together before nodding.

* * *

**W** ireless communication between androids was not as easy as point and play. You had to know the specific android you wanted to talk to before hand and find their specific frequency before initiating a conversation. It was like knocking on a door when it was extremely noisy. The recipient might hear you or not. But the more familiar you were with the other android and the more frequently you communicated, the easier it was until you didn’t need to knock and the door opened for you. 

Connor had never had this problem before because the androids he needed to communicate with were often right in front of his face and there were no problems there but detroit was littered with androids and trying to get Markus’ signature in the city was impossible.

“This is impossible,” He muttered.

“Is something wrong?” Hank asked. As soon as they had arrived at Ferndale, Connor’s LED had been continuously cycling and had remained a constant yellow. He’d even started looking frustrated, muttering to himself. “Is something wrong?”

“I’m trying to connect with Markus but this place is filled with androids. It’s difficult to get his energy signature and I don’t even know if he’s here.”

Hank smiled and shook his head. “You should really get a phone. That way you could call without all the trouble. Anyway, you can use mine. Markus gave me his phone number.”

“Phones are dangerous. I’m surprised Markus is using one,” Connor said accepting the phone Hank was handing to him.

“Well you guys are androids. I’m sure you’d find it easier to protect against spying than us humans would.”

“Hmm. Thanks,” Connor said then dialled the number. It took a few rings but eventually someone picked up the phone.

“I’m surprised to hear from you Hank. I thought you wouldn’t want anything else to do with us after rescuing Connor.”

“It’s me, not Hank,” Connor said, “I need to speak to you.”

“Hello Connor. Nice to speak to you again without a gun in my face. Where do you want to meet because I’m not inviting you to Jericho?”

“I’m at the plaza. Let’s meet and talk there. I’m not comfortable saying more over the phone.”

“Fine. Are you alone?”

“I’m with Hank. Only Hank.”

“Okay. Good. I won’t be.”

“Of course.”

“We’ll be there in half an hour. Meet us at this location,” Markus said and sent a location to the phone. “It’ll delete itself thirty seconds after I end this call so get it quick. See you Connor.” Markus hung up.

“Well?” Hank said.

“Yeah, he wants to meet at an abandoned building not far from here in around thirty minutes,” Connor replied.

“Okay. Let’s get going,” Hank said and started to move but Connor’s hand on his arm stopped. He looked down at it with surprise and for a second an odd emotion came upon him but left just as quickly. “What?”

“You haven’t eaten today, have you?” Connor asked, “Have you even been eating recently?”

“Is that important now?”

“Yes. You have bad habits, Hank and I don’t want to have more. Food is very important for humans. If you aren’t eating, you won’t have much energy.”

“Ah. I forgot how much you nagged. I have been eating. Just not as frequently.”

“Then let’s get something to eat. The place isn’t far, we’ll get there in five minutes by car so why don’t we get something for you to eat at that time.”

“It’s not a big deal Connor. I’ll eat later. I’m not starving myself, I’m just very busy.”

“But you aren’t now.”

“Ah shit. Fine. I give in, you’ve won let’s go get some food. Some burgers would be nice.”

“I was actually hoping for something healthier like-”

“Don’t push your luck Connor,” Hank interrupted but with a smile on his face

“Fine but I will keep at it until you see things my way.”

“Fine, fine whatever helps you sleep at night.”

“Androids don’t really sleep like humans do.”

“It’s a saying Connor.”

Their voices faded as they walked down the road. It was a cold November and there was a lot to do but this they understood. They understood the rituals that had built the foundations of their friendship - the slight antagonism, the banter, the nagging. All of it contributed to make their relationship stronger than before. Strong enough to survive an apparent death and the orders of powerful organisations. Strong enough to readjust them in the new world they’d found themselves. It would take time but everything would be alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a new year and decade guys. Sorry for the brevity of this fic. I wanted to write longer but I just felt that I had to stop here. Next chapter is going to show the talk Connor has with Markus. He's got a plan for what to do. Hank's kept his job and he's got more responsibilities but he's stronger now. Hope you enjoy the chapter. Please leave a comment, they give me life and inspiration.


End file.
